On Saturday, an airstrike on a residential apartment in Gaza — which local officials reported left five people dead, four of them women — was described by Israel as an attempt to eliminate the top Hamas commander operating in the territory. The strike occurred in the pre-dawn hours of a date that corresponded, under the Hebrew calendar, to the one-year point since the attack of 7 October 2023 — a day recorded as the deadliest single day in Israel's history — and took place against the backdrop of an ongoing military operation in Gaza.
The military stated that its operation targeted Ali al-Amoudi, whom it characterised as a close associate of Yahya Sinwar — the Hamas leader who was killed — and alleged his involvement in organising the October 7 attack. A review was under way to determine whether al-Amoudi had been killed or wounded in the strike.
The military's statement described al-Amoudi as the most senior Hamas figure currently operating in the Gaza Strip, with direct involvement in the organisation's armed activities and its efforts to rebuild for further conflict. The statement added that the strike was carried out after his presence inside a residential building became known, characterising that circumstance as evidence of Hamas positioning itself among civilian populations.
The military described the strike as an action taken to neutralise a perceived threat, noting that precision munitions had been deployed as part of efforts to limit harm to non-combatants, and expressed regret over any casualties among those not party to the conflict.
Sinwar's death in Gaza during October 2024 was received by parts of the Israeli public as a notable development, yet armed operations against Hamas have continued under official policy, even after a US-brokered ceasefire arrangement took effect roughly a year before. Sources have described al-Amoudi as holding the highest-ranking position within Hamas's operations in the Gaza Strip.
Khalil al-Hayaa, a Hamas leadership figure based in Qatar, has engaged in a series of diplomatic efforts on the organisation's behalf. In July, al-Hayaa put its backing behind a US-brokered proposal for Hamas to lay down its arms — a development that US President Donald Trump described as a turning point, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly cast doubt on its sincerity.
According to a hospital official at Al-Shifa in Gaza City, five bodies and a number of wounded individuals were brought in during the early morning hours after a strike hit the Rimal neighbourhood. Among those who lost their lives were a man, two women, and each of their daughters.
According to Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency operating under Hamas governance, two projectiles struck the apartment directly, triggering a fire and leaving the building with structural damage. The hospital director noted that two of the five people wounded held Christian faith.
On Saturday afternoon, family and community members gathered at Saint Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza City to bid farewell to Maysaa Abu Daoud, aged 56, and her daughter Mary Al-Najjar, aged 36. Ihab Ayad, identified as a relative of the women, told reporters the household had been going about its daily routine when the airstrike took place, and that those inside had not engaged in any form of hostility — neither throwing stones nor launching rockets. He stated that children found holding stones face being labelled terrorists or killers, and noted that, although the opposing party commands a considerably larger arsenal, the harm it is capable of causing remains absolute.
Roughly a thousand people of Christian faith — the majority identifying as Orthodox — reside within the Palestinian territory. The West Bank is home to a notably larger Palestinian Christian population, though the number of people leaving has climbed since the conflict began.
A death toll of 1,221 people has been recorded from the October 7 attack carried out by Hamas, a figure drawn from tallies compiled using data released by Israeli authorities. Gaza's health ministry — an administrative body whose casualty counts the United Nations has evaluated as reliable, despite the ministry operating within Hamas-run governance — recorded a death toll exceeding 74,200, alongside widespread destruction of the territory's physical infrastructure stemming from the ensuing military operations.
Figures released by Gaza's health ministry put the number of people who lost their lives at more than 1,440 in the period following the ceasefire announcement a year prior. Five fatalities among military personnel were recorded alongside the death of one civilian contractor during the same timeframe.
