Palestinian deputy labor minister killed in Israeli strike in Gaza City

By Abdelsalam Fayez

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Palestinian Deputy Labor Minister Ihab al-Ghussein was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Sunday, local authorities said.

Gaza's government media office said al-Ghussein was killed along with a group of Palestinians after he was directly hit by an Israeli plane, without providing further details.

The office said al-Ghussein's wife and daughter were earlier killed in an airstrike on a house where they had taken refuge.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on the report.

Al-Ghussein had previously served as a spokesman for the Hamas-run Interior Ministry in the Gaza Strip.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.

More than 38,150 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 87,800 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Nine months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.