ISTANBUL

The head of Emergency and Ambulance Services in the Gaza Strip was killed in an Israeli airstrike early Monday, the territory’s health ministry said.

In a statement, the ministry confirmed that Hani Al-Jafrawi lost his life in an Israeli airstrike.

The statement emphasized that “healthcare workers continue their humanitarian duty of evacuating the wounded and deceased around the clock, despite the continuous Israeli bombardment.”

The ministry reaffirmed its “determination to continue its medical and humanitarian responsibilities despite systematic targeting and direct assaults, which have resulted in the deaths of 500 healthcare workers and the detention of over 310 others under harsh and inhumane conditions.”

The statement did not provide details regarding the circumstances of Al-Jafrawi's death. However, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, citing unnamed medical sources, reported that Al-Jafrawi was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Al-Daraj medical clinic in central Gaza City.

On Sunday night, Gaza's Civil Defense said they recovered the bodies of two Palestinian Health Ministry workers and several injured individuals from the site of the airstrike at the clinic.

As of yet, there has been no official response from Israel regarding the episode.

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

Over 37,500 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and nearly 86,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

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

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio