Hamas says senior government official in Gaza killed in airstrike

An Israeli airstrike in Gaza City killed a senior official in the Hamas-run government Sunday, according to the organization.

Hamas said that Ehab al-Ghussein, the Deputy Minister of Labor, was among four people killed by an Israeli airstrike on the Holy Family School in Gaza City.

“Civil Defense crews in Gaza Governorate were able to retrieve four martyrs and a number of injured individuals after Israeli occupation aircraft targeted the ‘Holy Family’ school, which houses a large number of displaced persons west of Gaza City,” the Civil Defense Directorate said.

Al-Ghussein was 45 and had been the Deputy Minister of Labor in Gaza since 2020, as well as the Head of the Emergency Committee for the Civil Service of the Northern Gaza Strip.

In May, his sister Muna Jamal and wife Amani Sakeek were killed in an Israeli airstrike, according to reports at the time.

The Israeli military has said it carried out strikes in the area, saying it targeted “a complex inside of which terrorists were operating and hiding in the area of a school building in Gaza City.” It’s not clear whether the strikes were those in which a senior Hamas official was killed.

It added that “numerous steps were taken in order to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise aerial surveillance and additional intelligence.”

The strike took place at UNRWA’s Al-Jaouni school in al-Nuseirat camp in central Gaza on Saturday. The school was sheltering displaced people, according to the health ministry.