Israeli officials say Hamas commander killed in Gaza strike

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israeli forces killed Izz al-Din al-Beik, identified by them as commander of Hamas’s Northern Gaza Brigade, in an overnight airstrike on an apartment in Gaza City. Palestinian reports also said al-Beik was killed in the strike, but Hamas had not confirmed his death or command position in the available reporting Tuesday morning. The strike hit an apartment in the al-Nasr neighborhood, northwest of Gaza City, according to Palestinian reports. One account said two people were killed and others wounded; medical teams recovered two bodies after civil defense crews extinguished a fire. Palestinian activists identified one of the dead as al-Beik. The reports did not provide independent identification evidence establishing that he was among those killed. Netanyahu and Katz announced the killing in a joint statement and described al-Beik as responsible for planning operations against Israeli forces and recruiting Hamas operatives. The Israeli military had not separately commented on the strike in one account.