An Israeli airstrike killed Izz al-Din Al-Beik, head of Hamas’ armed wing in the northern Gaza Strip, in an apartment building in Gaza City’s Nasr neighbourhood around dawn on Tuesday, September 29, Israeli and Palestinian officials said. Medics said another person died from their wounds after the attack. Organized armed power entered a residential building with the strike. Residents had no say in the decision to attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said the Israeli military targeted and killed Beik. They said he had helped plan attacks and recruit militants. Hamas confirmed his killing. Those claims and the confirmation establish who died and what each side says about him, but they don't resolve the competing accounts of the ceasefire or the wider military campaign.
The ceasefire, without withdrawal
Israel says Hamas has been rearming and launching attacks in violation of an October ceasefire. Hamas denies trying to carry out attacks or rebuild its arsenal, and accuses Israel of undermining the Gaza deal. The Israeli military says it has stepped up strikes on Hamas in recent weeks and killed at least 20 Hamas figures this month, including people it identified as senior commanders or as having taken part in the October 7, 2023, attacks or held Israeli hostages.
The parties wielding organized force make those claims. Hamas operates an armed wing; Israel has a military conducting airstrikes. Their accounts of security and violations of the agreement sit alongside the people killed and wounded in Gaza. The source offers no independent resolution of the allegations.
A U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreed last year calls for the eventual reconstruction of the territory. Little progress has been made. Negotiators haven't agreed on terms for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw its troops, while Israeli airstrikes have continued. The agreement promises a future. Strikes continue, and negotiations remain stalled.
The cost counted in lives
At least 1,400 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect, according to Gaza health officials. The Israeli military says four Israeli soldiers have been killed. Officials on each side provide separate figures, which the report attributes rather than reconciles.
Palestinian authorities say more than 73,000 people have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza, launched after Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel in October 2023. The report places Tuesday’s strike within that assault and the ceasefire that hasn't stopped Israeli airstrikes. It also records another person’s death in the attack, without naming them or describing their role.
The promised reconstruction remains tied to negotiations over disarmament and troop withdrawal. Meanwhile, the Israeli military says it is killing Hamas figures, Hamas rejects Israel’s account of its actions, and residents face the consequences of strikes in their neighbourhoods. No progress on the central terms has been reported. The competing security claims landed at the apartment building in Nasr neighbourhood.