World Bulletin/News Desk

The Palestinian Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip said Tuesday that a young man had succumbed to the H1N1 virus, popularly known as "swine flu."

The young man, who hails from the southern city of Khan Younis, was the Gaza Strip's first H1N1 fatality, Magdi Dahir, the ministry's director of preventive medicine, told The Anadolu Agency.

While six other Gazans had come down with the virus, he added, their respective conditions were not life-threatening.

Formerly designated a "pandemic" by the UN's World Health Organization in 2009, H1N1 is a respiratory disease caused by influenza.

The virus was first observed in Mexico in 2009.