Senior Hamas Political Leaders Nizar Awadallah, Mahmoud al-Zahar Killed by Israel Defense Forces in Khan Yunis Airstrike

A commotion at a hospital led people to believe that Senior Hamas Political Leader Nizar Awadallah Killed by Israel Defense Forces in Khan Yunis Airstrike. This was later confirmed by the IDF, though not by Hamas.

Nizar Awadallah was important enough to make it onto a deck of playing cards given to Israeli soldiers, so they could recognize him and other Hamas leaders should they be captured. The US did a similar deck of cards with Isis members in Mosul, Iraq.

"Apparently senior Hamas official Nizar Awadallah was killed in Khan Yunis battle. He died at the hospital. People were asked not to take photos and those who did were beaten up!” tweeted Gaza Today, purportedly a local news website.

Nizar Awadallah is a longtime member of Hamas who was a close associate of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. He formerly headed Hamas’s advisory shura council and ran in a March 2021 internal Hamas election to lead Hamas’s political bureau in the Gaza Strip. Awadallah was initially declared the winner of that contest, but ultimately lost in a runoff vote.

Prior to the official formation of Hamas, Awadallah participated in and eventually led Hamas precursor Al-Mujama Al-Islami, the social, religious, and charity organization that Yassin created in 1973. Awadallah was allegedly involved in Mujama Al-Islami’s military wing, the Mujahadin al-Filastayeen (“Palestinian Holy Warriors”). He later joined Hamas’s armed faction, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, during the First Intifada in the 1980s. After Israel killed Mujahadin al-Filastayeen founder Salah Shehadeh in 1987, Awadallah reportedly took over the faction. He was subsequently arrested and spent time in and out of Israeli prisons between 1989 and 1996. Israel bombed Awadallah’s home in Gaza in 2009 and 2014 during conflicts with Hamas.

There are persistent rumors in Gaza that other senior Hamas officials were in the room with Awadallah when the IDF bombed it. In particular, senior Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar, 78, was said to have been seriously injured and taken to Al-Nasr hospital in Gaza.

Mahmoud al-Zahar (Arabic: محمود الزهار Maḥmūd az-Zahhār) (born 6 May 1945) is a Palestinian politician. He is a co-founder of Hamas and a member of the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip. Al-Zahar served as foreign minister in the Hamas-dominated Palestinian Authority Government of March 2006 (also known as the First Haniyeh Government) that was sworn in on 20 March 2006.

Video of Niza Awadallah arriving at the hospital: https://x.com/KosherPerks/status/1731843888657084735?s=20