Two Palestinians were killed and 15 others wounded on Tuesday when Israel struck a residential apartment building in northern Gaza.

Residents who had been sheltering there are now leaving in panic, according to Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza City.

Many of those displaced by the war had taken refuge in the building. The strike left the structure unstable and at risk of collapse, and families are moving out in search of safer shelter elsewhere.

The Israeli military said the target was a Hamas field commander. Hamas has not confirmed this, and there is no independent verification of who was targeted.

The attack came on a day of intensified Israeli strikes in the enclave. Earlier on Tuesday, Israel killed Izz al-Din al-Beik, head of Hamas’s armed wing in northern Gaza, in an airstrike on an apartment building in Gaza City’s Nasr neighbourhood. Hamas confirmed his death. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had been involved in planning attacks and recruiting fighters. Medics also reported a separate strike in Jabalia refugee camp that killed at least one person.

Al-Beik is the third senior Hamas commander Israel has killed in recent weeks, after the Khan Younis Brigade commander on September 11 and the Rafah Brigade commander on September 15. Israel says Hamas has been rearming and carrying out attacks in breach of the ceasefire. Hamas denies this and accuses Israel of undermining the peace deal.

Gaza’s health officials say at least 1,400 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire took effect, while Israel says four of its soldiers have died in the same period. Palestinian authorities put the total death toll since the war began in October 2023 at more than 73,000.