Former PA minister reportedly killed in central Gaza strike; no comment from IDF

A former Palestinian Authority minister was killed on Sunday in an Israeli strike on his home in the Gaza Strip, according to reports from the Palestinian news agency Wafa, and the Hamas-run health ministry.

The reports said that Youssef Salama, a 68-year-old former minister of religious affairs in the Palestinian Authority, was killed in a strike on the Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Considered close to Fatah, the party of Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas, Salama served as minister between February 2005 and March 2006. He also served as a preacher at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces.

War erupted between Israel and Hamas after the terror group’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel from Gaza, killing some 1,200 people and seizing over 240 hostages of all ages under the cover of a deluge of thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities. The vast majority of those killed as gunmen seized border communities were civilians, many amid horrific acts of brutality by the terrorists.

In response, Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas, launching a military offensive in the Strip which the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says has left more than 21,800 people dead. These figures cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include both civilians and Hamas members killed in Gaza, including as a consequence of terror groups’ own rocket misfires. Israeli officials assess some 8,500 terror operatives have been killed in the fighting.