Five killed in Israeli strike on Gaza apartment building

Israel has said that it attempted to kill Hamas's top leader in the Gaza Strip in an airstrike on an apartment that local officials said killed five people, four of them women.

The Israeli military said it aimed to kill Ali al-Amoudi, describing him as the "right-hand man" of slain Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar and saying he was involved in planning the 7 October attack.

Israel said it was reviewing whether it killed or injured him.

It said it targeted him after learning that he was inside an apartment building, saying it showed that Hamas was using civilians as human shields.

"Today, al-Amoudi is the most senior Hamas figure in the Gaza Strip and is directly involved in Hamas's terror activities and in rebuilding the organisation for war. The terrorist was struck in order to remove the threat," a military statement said.

"Steps were taken to mitigate harm to civilians, including the use of precise munitions," the military said, adding it "regrets any harm caused to uninvolved individuals".

Israel killed Yahya Sinwar in Gaza in October 2024, in what many Israelis saw as a major symbolic victory, although Israel has vowed to keep destroying Hamas even since a US-brokered ceasefire was declared a year ago.

Ali al-Amoudi is considered Hamas's top person in the Gaza Strip. The movement's leader Khalil al-Hayaa lives in Qatar and has tried to manoeuvre diplomatically to Hamas's advantage.

Earlier, Gaza's civil defence agency and a hospital said that the airstrike had killed five Palestinians, including four women.

Mahmoud Bassal, the spokesperson for the civil defence which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authority, said that his team took "five bodies and several wounded" to the hospital after the strike.

He said two missiles directly hit the apartment, causing a fire to break out and damaging the building.

Friends and relatives gathered at the Saint Porphyrius Church in Gaza City for the funeral of Maisa Abu Dawoud, and her daughter Mary, who were among the dead.

"Today is essentially the worst day of my life. I lost my mother and my grandmother today," said Fouad Al-Najjar.

Christians make up just ⁠1% of ‌Gaza's more than 2 million population.

In a statement, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem extended their condolences.

"We pray for an end to the war and bombardment, for ⁠the protection of civilian lives, and for a just peace in which the people of Gaza can feel secure for their children and loved ones. May their memory be eternal," the Patriarchate said.

The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas's unprecedented 2023 attack against Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

The massive Israeli offensive in response has left most of Gaza in ruins and killed more than 74,200 people, according to Gaza's health ministry, which is under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

Israeli forces have killed more than 1,440 people since a ceasefire was announced last October, according to Gaza's health ministry.

The Israeli military has identified five deaths in its ranks over the same period, as well as the death of one civilian contractor.

'Financing a terrorist organisation'

Separately, five people have been charged in France on suspicion of sending funding via humanitarian groups to a third party seeking to collect money for Hamas, the French National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) has said.

The PNAT said the five were taken into custody on Tuesday by investigators from the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI), which is leading the investigation.

Yesterday, a judicial inquiry was opened into "financing a terrorist organisation, in this case Hamas". Three of the five suspects were placed under judicial supervision on PNAT's recommendation.

The office said it "requested the pretrial detention of the two association presidents", but the first "was placed in pretrial detention pending a postponed adversarial hearing he had requested".

"My client participated in fundraising efforts for exclusively humanitarian purposes; his detention would be scandalous," his lawyer, Lucie Simon, said.

The second association president has been placed "under judicial supervision", the PNAT said.

Neither the locations of the two organisations nor the amounts of money concerned were disclosed.