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Hamas officials, speaking through Saudi media, say Ali al-Amoudi—called Sinwar’s successor—survived an Israeli apartment strike two weeks ago. Israel’s military has not acknowledged that operation, instead announcing other Hamas kills, while SANA reports two Palestinians dead Friday.
Across the press: Hamas via Saudi media says al-Amoudi survived; Jerusalem Post reports other Hamas dead, SANA relays Friday civilian dead.
Source base: 3 outlets read in full (Israel, Syria), selected from 65 analyzed.
- 1 of 3 · Ynet onlyAli al-Amoudi was in the apartment the IDF targeted and survived with moderate wounds.Ynet reports a senior Hamas official who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat, and separately Hamas official Razi Hamad via Al Arabiya.
- 1 of 3 · Ynet onlyThe strike on the apartment killed five people, including four women.Ynet cites earlier reports in Asharq Al-Awsat.
- 1 of 3 · The Jerusalem Post onlyThe IDF killed Hamas Nukhba cell commander Maher Walid Omar Al-Husseini in southern Gaza.The Jerusalem Post reports an IDF announcement.
- 1 of 3 · SANA onlyTwo Palestinians, including a woman, were killed by Israeli fire and bombardment on Friday.SANA reports, citing Wafa and its own reporting.
- 1 of 3 · Ynet onlyHamas official Razi Hamad said al-Amoudi survived and accused Israel of putting the Gaza ceasefire at risk of collapse.Ynet reports Hamad’s statements to Al Arabiya.
- If further Israeli strikes occurWhether Washington pressures Israel to stop assassinations, which Hamas says endanger the Gaza agreement.
- Still openWill the upcoming Israeli election change Netanyahu’s stance on withdrawal and disarmament sequencing? · What specific obstacles prevent the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza from entering the territory?
Full analysis
What happened Why it matters How each country tells it Room for disagreement Our assessment Sources and evidence
What happened
A senior Hamas official told the Saudi-owned, London-published daily Asharq Al-Awsat that Ali al-Amoudi, the man treated in Israeli coverage as Sinwar’s successor, was in the apartment the IDF struck two weeks earlier and survived with moderate wounds, Ynet reported on Saturday. The official, who refused to be named, said al-Amoudi had been in a side area of the apartment when the strike hit, which was why he lived, and that he was now in good condition and being treated in a safe place. Ynet called this the first admission by a senior Hamas official that Israeli intelligence had accurately located the target. The strike, on a Saturday morning two weeks earlier in western Gaza City, was reported at the time to have killed five people, including four women; Asharq Al-Awsat then quoted three Hamas sources doubting that al-Amoudi was killed, one of them estimating he was present but may have survived. Two days later, Hamas official Razi Hamad told Al Arabiya that al-Amoudi had survived, accused Israel of violating the ceasefire by continuing assassinations, said the Israeli assassinations put the Gaza agreement at risk of collapse, and said Washington must pressure Israel to stop them.
Ynet identified al-Amoudi as a political-organizational figure rather than a military commander. Born in Gaza and raised in Khan Younis, he was linked to the killing of Shin Bet coordinator Noam Cohen, arrested by a Duvdevan unit near Abu Dis in 1994, sentenced to life, and released in the 2011 Shalit deal alongside Sinwar and more than a thousand other prisoners. Ynet said he served as director of Sinwar’s bureau during Sinwar’s first term as head of Hamas’s political bureau from 2017 to 2021, was elected to the political bureau in 2021 and headed the movement’s information department. After Sinwar was killed in October 2024, al-Amoudi took over management of the political bureau’s affairs in Gaza, Ynet reported, and he is now competing with Nizar Awadallah for the organization’s top post in the Strip; a first round produced no decision and the decisive round was frozen after an appeal. Ynet cited Al Arabiya and Al Hadath reporting that Khaled Mashaal and Zaher Jabarin support Awadallah while Khalil al-Hayya supports al-Amoudi, though Asharq Al-Awsat reported it was not certain al-Hayya backed either candidate.
The Jerusalem Post, carrying IDF announcements, reported a different set of deaths. The IDF said it killed Hamas Nukhba cell commander Maher Walid Omar Al-Husseini in southern Gaza on Wednesday and announced it Friday, saying he had infiltrated the Re’im military base in the October 7 massacre and continued planning attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians. That followed Thursday strikes that killed Hamas commander Mohammed Mohammed Abd al-Khalek Hala in northern Gaza and Palestinian Islamic Jihad member Ahmad Jabrin Tawfiq Dalhan in Khan Younis, as well as a joint IDF-Shin Bet strike that killed Basel Nabil Abd al-Rahman Kashta and Ahmad Raja al-Shaer, described as weapons smugglers posing an immediate threat near the Yellow Line. The article does not name al-Amoudi.
Syria’s state news agency SANA reported, citing Wafa, that two Palestinians, including a woman, were killed and several wounded Friday evening by Israeli fire and bombardment. Wafa reported occupation forces opened fire on Palestinians in Al-Mawassi, Khan Younis, killing a woman, and that occupation aircraft bombed a group in Al-Nasr west of Gaza City, killing one. SANA did not mention al-Amoudi or the commanders named by the IDF.
Why it matters
If the Hamas official’s account is accurate, the strike is a narrowly failed assassination of the man Hamas may choose to lead it in Gaza, and it is the first acknowledgment from Hamas that Israeli intelligence hit the right apartment. It lands inside a succession fight that is already divided, with appeals pending, and inside a ceasefire that has held for a year while Israeli forces have continued near-daily strikes. TIB reported on October 11 that the US-brokered ceasefire took effect October 10, 2025, that Israeli strikes have killed about 1,450 Palestinians since, and that Israel has expanded control to roughly 70 percent of Gaza. Hamad’s warning connects the attempt on al-Amoudi to the ceasefire’s survival and to US pressure, making the strike a political test rather than only a tactical one. The official Israeli announcements carried by The Jerusalem Post show strikes in the same days killing commanders and weapons smugglers, and SANA shows civilians being killed without any leadership name attached. A reader holding only one of these reports sees either a failed hit on a top leader, successful counter-terrorism, or civilian casualties.
How each country tells it
- Ynet · Israel · carries Asharq Al-Awsat and Al ArabiyaA Hebrew-language Israeli report that a senior Hamas official admitted Ali al-Amoudi was in the apartment the IDF targeted and survived with moderate wounds.
- The Jerusalem Post · Israel · original reportingAn English-language Israeli defense report that the IDF killed Hamas Nukhba commander Maher Walid Omar Al-Husseini and other fighters in Gaza.
- SANA · Syria · carries WafaA Syrian state news report that Israeli fire and bombing killed two Palestinians, including a woman in Khan Younis, citing Palestinian agency Wafa.
Room for disagreement
The strongest case that this changes little is built from the reporting itself. The IDF announcements The Jerusalem Post relays show a campaign that is still killing named Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives across Gaza; the military has said nothing about an attempt on al-Amoudi, and Ynet’s own report describes him as a political figure, not a commander of the armed wing. The survival account rests on a Hamas official who refused to be identified and on Razi Hamad, who has an interest in presenting al-Amoudi as alive and in accusing Israel and Washington of endangering the ceasefire. That not one Israeli military statement among these sources says al-Amoudi was targeted leaves open the possibility that Hamas is attributing an ordinary strike to a leadership hunt. Even if he was the target, the same reporting shows the campaign has continued after the attempt, and the ceasefire has already absorbed near-daily strikes and about 1,450 Palestinian deaths without collapsing. On that record, Hamad’s warning may be another round of pressure rather than a new phase.
Our assessment
It is likely that the ceasefire will absorb this strike as it has absorbed the others, and that Israel will keep up the assassination campaign while the survival claim becomes Hamas’s argument for demanding US pressure rather than a trigger for collapse. The warrant is the convergence of reporting on the state of the campaign: Ynet’s Hamas-sourced account places the attempt inside a list of recent targets, and the IDF announcements carried by The Jerusalem Post confirm the campaign is ongoing and producing kills, which means the failed attempt is not the last move. Hamas has an interest in the survival claim, but no source in the pool reports al-Amoudi dead, and Ynet calls the admission rare, which gives the claim enough standing to complicate Israel’s information picture even if the IDF never confirms it.
What would change this: an Israeli military statement confirming an attempt on al-Amoudi, or a public US demand that Israel halt assassinations.
Sources and evidence
Press quoted
- Was the strike that targeted al-Amoudi the same Wednesday operation in which the IDF says it killed al-Husseini, and did Israel target both?
- Who were the five people reportedly killed, including four women, in the apartment strike?
- Has the IDF confirmed or denied that al-Amoudi was the intended target and that he survived?
That’s how the world told the story.
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