Map: Sydney’s southwest killing field in Hamzy, Alameddine feud

Sydney’s wild southwest has become a killing field in the last 16 months for the Alameddine, Hamzy feud. Here’s one police theory for why the violence kicked off.

Sydney’s wild southwest has long been the playground of the underworld, but for the last 16 months it has also become a killing field.

From Condell Park to Hurstville, Smithfield to Chester Hill, and Guildford to South Wentworthville, gang shootings have rocked suburban streets.

The only time the feud involving the Hamzys and Alameddines ventured out elsewhere it went right to the heart of Sydney’s CBD, with high-ranking underworld figure Bilal Hamze shot dead as he left a city eatery.

His death came nine months after Mejid Hamzy walked out of his Condell Park home early on October 19, 2020, only to be met by the bullets of two gunmen who had been lying in wait.

As he stumbled to the home of a friend nearby in desperate need of help, the first blood was being spilt in what would become one of Sydney’s most violent gang wars.

Since then seven other men — including his brother Ghassan Amoun, cousin Bilal and a pair of relatives — have also been killed, often in brazen attacks.

NSW Police believe the feud between the Hamzy and Alameddine organised crime networks began in mid-2020.

The scene where Ghassan Amoun, the brother of crime boss Bassam Hamzy, was shot dead in a daylight attack in South Wentworthville.

Strike Force Raptor raid the Northmead home of Shaylin Zreika. Picture: NSW Police

Rafat Alameddine (left) and Shaylin Zreika.

Tensions simmered along until there was a drive-by shooting on the Westmead home of mid-level associate Shaylin Zreika on June 9 that year.

Four months later they went up a notch when Zreika was allegedly bashed by three members of the Hamzy clan in broad daylight on a Sefton street.

A few days later the home of Rafat Alameddine, the man police say is the head of his family, was shot at in a drive-by attack.

Police believe that it was an act of retaliation that led Mejid Hamzy to be gunned down the very next morning.

Police remove a car from the crime scene after the shooting of Mejid Hamzy at Condell Park.

Detectives from the State Crime Command have been cracking down on those key to the conflict out of fear innocent people will be caught up in the violence.

It has already happened on at least three occasions, with a nurse cut when a stray bullet broke the window of a hospital just metres from where a drive-by attack was being carried out.

In January 2021, father-to-be Moustapha Naaman was killed as he left a boxing event. Police believe high-profile Hamzy family member Ibrahem Hamze — who was at the same event — was the intended target.

Most recently, Toufik Hamze was gunned down outside his Guildford home just moments after getting into his ute to drive his son Salim – a low-ranking Hamzy crime clan member – to work.