Named after its benefactor, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani of Qatar, the complex was envisioned as a housing solution for middle to lower-income Palestinian families.

[5] The visit, the first by a head of state to the Gaza Strip since Hamas fighters seized control in 2007, was condemned by Israel as seemingly granting legitimacy to a terror organisation.

[10] Al Thani, who envisioned the project as a housing solution for middle to lower-income Palestinians,[11] laid the foundation stone for the complex and provided $150 million to fund its construction.

[5] By 2013 however, a change in Egypt's leadership led to severe restrictions at the Rafah Border Crossing and a crackdown on the smuggling tunnels used to import materials into Gaza, slowing down construction considerably.

[12][a] After delays involving a land dispute with a local Bedouin tribe,[4] in February 2017 Ismail Haniyeh—then vice chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau—delivered a speech at the dedication ceremony of the second phase of the project, during which he announced the addition of 1,060 apartments.

[3] While the complex generally attracted a younger demographic which was not inclined to resistance activity,[11] Maariv claimed that Hamas operatives and officials were known to have domiciled there.

[15] On 10 May 2023—the second day of Operation Shield and Arrow—the Israeli Air Force (IAF) struck an apartment in the complex belonging to the sister of Palestinian Islamic Jihad's rocket division head, killing him and two of PIJ's commanders.

[11] On 2 December 2023, after a week-long cessation of fighting in the Israel–Hamas war, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began bombing targets in Khan Yunis, including in Hamad City.

[21] In one of the buildings, soldiers found Colonel Yonatan Steinberg's army-issued weapon, along with personal effects of Israelis who were abducted at the outset of the war.

[23] A resident of the complex who returned there in April in order to move back into her severely-damaged home explained that "it is better than tents ... We don't have a city any more, only rubble.

While the complex featured its own schools, a mosque, shops and a garden area,[12][14] some residents noted the lack of a health clinic, food market and police station.

One religious resident succeeded in coercing his less observant neighbours to remove concrete benches from the garden area because he was interested in promoting gender segregation amongst the complex's youth.