An Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Tuesday killed Izz al-Din Al-Beik, whom Israel describes as the commander of the Northern Gaza Brigade of Hamas’s Qassam Brigades. Israel claimed responsibility, and Reuters reported that Hamas confirmed the killing. The strike comes as Israel steps up its targeting of Hamas commanders under a fragile ceasefire.
The strike
The attack hit an apartment building in the Nasr neighbourhood, west of Gaza City, according to Reuters. Reports differ on when it happened. Reuters cited medics who put it around dawn, while the Times of Israel said it came after midnight. Both agree it took place overnight into Tuesday, September 29.
Two people were killed in total, according to health officials cited by The New Arab: one person died of wounds and medics recovered two bodies. Neither report identifies the second victim.
Hamas confirmed the killing. Reuters said the group issued a statement, though the text of that statement was not available to it. The New Arab cited Hamas sources and medics confirming his death.
Israel’s account
The Israeli military and the Shin Bet security service said Al-Beik headed the Northern Gaza Brigade of the Qassam Brigades, according to the Times of Israel. His role was as a brigade commander, not head of Hamas’s entire armed wing.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that Al-Beik was involved in planning attacks on Israeli forces and recruiting militants. They also said Israel would keep pursuing Hamas commanders and operatives wherever they are hiding, according to Israeli reports. Outlets worded the statement slightly differently. These are Israeli allegations, and the accounts reviewed here do not independently verify them.
The Israeli military also said Al-Beik posed an immediate threat, an assertion attributed to the IDF that could not be independently confirmed.
Who he was
Israeli and Palestinian media reported that Al-Beik took over the Northern Gaza Brigade after his predecessor, Ahmed al-Ghandour, was killed in November 2023. Israeli and Palestinian outlets, including the Times of Israel and The New Arab, carried this account, which is not presented here as a Hamas claim.
Palestinian reporting, drawn from two secondary sources that could not be checked against primary records, said Al-Beik was born in 1981 and raised in the Jabalia refugee camp. It said he joined the Qassam Brigades in 2000. He had also survived an earlier Israeli assassination attempt in a Gaza City strike in May 2026, according to the same reporting.
A pattern of targeted killings
Al-Beik’s death follows other killings of Hamas commanders in recent weeks. The commander of the group’s Rafah brigade was killed on September 15. A separate report that a Khan Younis commander was killed on September 11 rests on a single source and should be treated with caution. Taken together, these reports suggest a pattern, but only the Rafah case is firmly established.
The Israeli military has also said that at least 20 Hamas figures have been killed this month. That figure is an IDF claim and has not been independently verified here.
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The ceasefire backdrop
A US-backed ceasefire took effect in October 2025. Israel says Hamas is rearming and carrying out attacks in violation of the truce. That is Israel’s position, and the sources used here do not independently establish it. Reuters, in its coverage of the strike, placed the killing within this wider context of continued violence despite the truce.
The war’s human toll remains stark on both sides. Gaza’s health ministry says more than 73,000 people have been killed in the territory since October 2023. About 1,200 people were killed in Israel in the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, which triggered the war.
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What comes next
Israel’s leaders have signalled that the campaign against Hamas commanders will continue. What that means for the ceasefire is unclear. The truce has held in name since October 2025, but Israel accuses Hamas of violating it, and each strike on a senior figure raises the risk of a wider breakdown. Neither side’s account of events is independently verifiable in full from the reporting available so far.
Al-Beik’s killing is the latest in a run of strikes on Hamas’s military leadership. Whether Hamas responds, and whether the ceasefire survives a further escalation, are the questions to watch in the coming days. This article will be updated as more verified information emerges.
