By ADAM RASGONUpdated: JANUARY 9, 2018 23:38Imad al-Alami, talks to journalists at a press conference held in the southern suburbs of Beirut in 1999.(photo credit: JOSEPH BARRAK / AFP)
Senior Hamas official Imad al-Alami was shot in the head on Tuesday “while examining his personal weapon in his home,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.Alami, also known as Abu Hamam, is regarded as a hard-liner and a supporter of Hamas’s ties with Iran.Health Ministry spokesman in Gaza, Ashraf al-Qidra, said Alami was admitted to intensive care at Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital and described his condition as “critical.”On Tuesday afternoon, Senior Hamas officials, including Hamas Politburo Chairman Ismail Haniyeh and Hamas Chief in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, visited Alami in the hospital, Gaza-based media reported.Alami, a civil engineer by training, has been a Hamas member since the late 1980s and was the first Hamas representative in Tehran.In 2012, he returned to Gaza after spending a number of years outside of the Palestinian territories.The following year, Alami was elected as deputy Hamas chief in Gaza, a position that he held until early 2017.During the 2014 Gaza War, one of the senior Hamas official’s feet was injured in an Israeli air raid, according to Hamas’s official website.
