Israel announces assassination of Gaza’s deputy Minister for Economy

Israeli forces have claimed responsibility for the assassination of Gaza’s deputy Minister for Economy, amid a flurry of assassinations of Palestinians officials in recent months.

According to a statement by Israel’s military over the weekend, an airstrike “eliminated Abdul Fattah Al-Zeriei” who reportedly “served as Hamas’ Minister for Economy in the Gaza Strip”.

Claiming that he was an “operative in the Manufacturing Department of Hamas’ Military Wing”, Occupation forces also claimed that he “was responsible for the distribution of fuel, gas and funds for hostile purposes”.

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It was not only Al-Zeriei who Israel killed in the strike, however, but also reportedly his mother, according to Gaza’s Media Office which stated that the attack hit a house in central Gaza’s Deir Al-Balah in which both of them were located.

Throughout its ongoing 10-month-long invasion of and offensive on the besieged Gaza Strip, Israel has made a point of not only killing over 39,000 Palestinians civilians, but also of targeting officials – along with their family members and surrounding relatives – in Hamas’s government and political wing.

The assassination of Al-Zeriei and his mother came days after Israel’s assassination of the most senior Hamas official so far, its political leader, Dr. Ismail Haniyeh, in Iran’s capital, Tehran.

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