Senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader declared dead

Ramadan Shalah

GAZA, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Former Palestinian Islamic Jihad Secretary General Ramadan Shalah was declared dead by his group on Saturday.

Shalah, a key figure in the political scene, died at 62 after suffering from an incurable disease, said his group in a statement.

Shalah, born in 1958 in Gaza, was one of the founders of the Islamic Jihad group. He lived in Lebanon and had strong ties with Syria.

He was the leader of the group between 1995 and 2018.

Soon after he was appointed as the group's secretary general, Shalah was declared by the United States as "a specially designated terrorist."