Israel killed Izz al-Din al-Beik, commander of Hamas’s Qassam Brigades Northern Brigade, in a dawn strike on an apartment in northwestern Gaza City yesterday, four Hamas sources told Asharq Al-Awsat. Israeli officials also announced his killing.
The sources said al-Beik, known as “Ashmawi,” died immediately when three missiles struck the apartment in the Al-Nasr neighborhood. They said the missiles were probably fired by warplanes to ensure he was killed.
The body of his personal aide, Mohannad Abu Foul of Jabalia refugee camp, was found that morning.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz announced the operation. The Israeli military later said it had killed al-Beik, accusing him of planning attacks and trying to rebuild the Northern Brigade after it suffered heavy losses in the war.
The strike hit at 3:30 a.m., an Asharq Al-Awsat correspondent reported. Fire engulfed the apartment and burned for more than half an hour before civil defense crews put it out.
The Israeli military appeared to have used missiles that caused intense fires, which could kill a target through either the blast or the toxic smoke they produced.
Israel’s Channel 12 gave a different account of the number of missiles fired. It said two struck the room where al-Beik was sleeping, followed by three more in case he had been in another room and to ensure he was dead.
The building stands beside another hit in a similar daylight strike about two months ago. That attack killed Adham Nasman, the Qassam Brigades’ Gaza Brigade operations commander, who had played a prominent role in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
Previous attempt
Al-Beik survived an assassination attempt in late May, days after the killings of Izz al-Din al-Haddad and Mohammed Odeh. The two had led the Qassam Brigades in Gaza in succession after Mohammed Sinwar.
That strike killed Imad Aslim, deputy commander of the Gaza Brigade and commander of its Zeitoun Battalion. Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat at the time that Aslim had been due to meet al-Beik and the brigade’s new commander, Mohannad Rajab. Neither al-Beik nor Rajab had arrived when the strike hit.
Al-Beik’s killing came about two weeks after Israel killed Mohammed al-Yazouri, commander of the Qassam Brigades’ Khan Younis Brigade, and Nail Abu Obeid, commander of its Rafah Brigade. Both had replaced commanders killed by Israel in similar operations.
The Qassam Brigades have lost most of their longtime leaders and military council members. The latest strikes indicate that Israel is targeting members appointed to its new military council to replace them.
Hamas sources have previously told Asharq Al-Awsat that the group’s structure is flexible and that it quickly replaces commanders who are killed.
Who Was Al-Beik?
Al-Beik, 48, was from the Falouja area of Jabalia refugee camp, a major Hamas stronghold. A prominent member of the group for years, he joined in the late 1990s after becoming active in mosques.
He began working with the Qassam Brigades when the second intifada broke out and became heavily involved in resisting Israeli incursions into Jabalia camp and the nearby town of Beit Lahiya. He was among the first to use Yassin anti-armor projectiles against a major Israeli operation in Jabalia in 2004.
Hamas sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that al-Beik led one of the Qassam Brigades’ first special units in Jabalia, now known as the Nukhba.
He then commanded the camp’s Imad Aqel, or western, Battalion for many years before becoming the Northern Brigade’s intelligence chief. He took command of the brigade after Ahmed al-Ghandour was killed in November 2023.
As intelligence chief, al-Beik was regarded as a favorite of Mohammed Odeh, then the Qassam Brigades’ intelligence chief for Gaza, the sources said. The two were close and both came from Jabalia camp.
The sources said al-Beik led efforts to thwart what became known during the war as the “Generals’ Plan,” which they said aimed to displace residents of northern Gaza. He stayed with his fighters in direct battles against Israeli forces, they said.
One Hamas source who knew him well described al-Beik as a skilled sniper and a popular figure who had also overseen Northern Brigade operations for a time. He survived several attempts on his life before and during the war.
In one attempt inside Jabalia camp during the latter half of the war, his aide was killed but al-Beik escaped.