A security source said a nighttime airstrike by Israel in Gaza City targeted Ali al-‘Amudi, a senior Hamas official.

According to The Times of Israel, the strike targeted a building in the west of Gaza City, and Palestinian media reported the killing of five people. The Israeli army has not commented on the attack so far and is evaluating its results.

Al-‘Amudi, who previously served as head of the Hamas media apparatus, has been presented as the leading option to succeed Khalil al-Hayya as head of the Hamas political bureau office in the Gaza Strip. Al-Hayya became head of the overall Hamas political bureau office on Tir 29 of this year and operates from Qatar.

It is believed that al-‘Amudi is now the highest-ranking Hamas political official within the Gaza Strip. He also temporarily assumed the leadership of the Hamas political bureau office in Gaza last Dey.

The Israeli army announced last Tuesday that it had killed Hamas’s commander of the Northern Gaza Brigade in an airstrike in Gaza City.