The Israeli occupation forces announced on Thursday that an employee of the Ministry of Security was killed during operations in the northern Gaza Strip.

According to the statement, the man was killed when an explosive device detonated while he was operating heavy engineering equipment to demolish a house in the Jabalia area. The device, reportedly planted earlier, exploded during the demolition activity.

Preliminary investigations by the occupation forces indicated that this marks the third Security Ministry employee to be killed in Gaza since the start of the war.

Palestinian resistance fighters continue to respond to the aggression using various tactics, including sniper attacks, explosive devices targeting occupation vehicles and buildings, and direct armed engagements.

On Wednesday, al-Qassam Brigades announced the successful sniper targeting of an Israeli soldier and the strike on an armored personnel carrier.

Palestinian Resistance attacks Israeli troops in Gaza

The al-Qassam Brigades and Islamic Jihad's al-Quds Brigades announced carrying out multiple attacks, resulting in the killing and wounding of Israeli Occupation Forces troops in northern and eastern Gaza.

On Tuesday, Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, revealed that they had targeted an Israeli infantry unit consisting of 10 soldiers with a shell in the al-Atatra area of Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, on Sunday, leaving them dead or wounded.

Meanwhile, Islamic Jihad’s military wing, the al-Quds Brigades, announced that on Tuesday afternoon, they detonated a booby-trapped house where a large Zionist force had taken up position in Gaza City’s al-Shujaiya neighborhood.

The al-Quds Brigades stated that the operation site was rigged with explosives, detonated simultaneously, adding, "We confirmed the Zionist unit suffered casualties, with both killed and wounded."

'Israel' launches ground invasion of Gaza

On May 18, the Israeli military revealed that it had initiated a major ground invasion across both northern and southern Gaza, signaling a significant and intensified escalation in the conflict as part of what it has named "Operation Gideon’s Chariots".

The Israeli occupation forces' (IOF) spokesperson stated that ground troops had launched a widespread invasion across multiple areas of northern and southern Gaza, following intensified airstrikes aimed at weakening the Palestinian Resistance's capabilities. 

The IOF claimed their air force had carried out strikes earlier in the week, hitting more than 670 sites throughout the Gaza Strip in what it described as an effort to degrade the operational capabilities of Gaza's resistance factions and pave the way for the ongoing ground offensive.

Earlier on May 19, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported that hospitals across the Strip have received 136 martyrs, with 11 of them pulled from under the rubble, along with 364 wounded victims during the past 24 hours.