Palestinian Deputy Labor Minister Ihab al-Ghussein was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Sunday, local authorities reported.
Gaza’s government media office said in a statement that 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.
Israeli forces kill Palestinian government official Ihab al-Ghussein
The Government Media Office in #Gaza announced the martyrdom of Al-Ghussein in a statement, explaining he was killed after being struck by an Israeli airstrike. https://t.co/KOWkuGsyZB
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) July 7, 2024
“He spent these days carrying his religious and national responsibilities, serving his people despite the imminent danger, as his family was targeted, his wife and several of his daughters were martyred,” Hamas said in a statement.
Al-Ghussein “did not stop for a moment from continuing to serve our people in his honorable national position, setting a great example of challenge, steadfastness, and resilience in the face of the occupation’s injustice, aggression, and crimes,” the statement added.
Ongoing Genocide
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 38,098 Palestinians have been killed, and 87,705 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
(PC, Anadolu)
