GAZA: A former Palestinian Authority minister was killed on Sunday in an Israeli strike on his home in the Gaza Strip, the official Palestinian news agency and Hamas health ministry said.
Youssef Salama, the 68-year-old former minister of religious affairs in the Palestinian Authority, was killed in a strike on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, Wafa news agency and the ministry reported.
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 the Old City of Jerusalem.
There was no immediate comment on his killing from the Israeli army.
Israel launched a relentless military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip after the Palestinian militants carried out an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7.
The militants’ attack left about 1,140 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Israel’s ongoing Gaza offensive has killed more than 21,800 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
Israeli strike kills former Palestinian minister in Gaza
https://arab.news/v22hp
Israeli strike kills former Palestinian minister in Gaza
- Israel’s ongoing Gaza offensive has killed more than 21,800 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza health ministry
- Youssef Salama, a former minister of religious affairs in the Palestinian Authority, was killed in a strike on Al-Maghazi refugee camp
Somali president visits city claimed by breakaway region
MOGADISHU: Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Friday visited a provincial capital claimed by the breakaway region of Somaliland -- the first visit there by a sitting president in over 40 years.
The visit to Las Anod, the administrative capital of the Sool region, comes amid heightened diplomatic tensions in the Horn of Africa after Israel officially recognised Somaliland, drawing strong opposition from Mogadishu.
Mohamud was attending the inauguration of the president of the newly created Northeast State, which became Somalia's sixth federal state in August.
It was the first visit by a Somali president since 1984.
Somalia is a federation of semi-autonomous states, some of which have fraught relations with the central government in Mogadishu.
The Northeast State comprises the regions of Sool, Sanaag and Cayn, all territories Somaliland claims as integral to its borders.
Somaliland had controlled Las Anod since 2007 but was forced to withdraw in 2023 after violent clashes with Somali forces and pro-Mogadishu militias left scores dead.
Mohamud's visit "is a symbol of strengthening the unity and efforts of the federal government to enforce the territorial unity of the Somali country and its people", the Somali president's office said.
