GAZA CITY?Two women have died in Hamas-run Gaza after contracting A(H1N1) flu virus, the first deaths from the virus in the densely-populated Palestinian territory, officials said on Monday.

Hassan Khalaf, a spokesman for the Hamas health ministry, declined to give details but said the condition of three other people who on Sunday had been confirmed to have contracted A(H1N1) was improving.

The five cases reported on Sunday marked the first A(H1N1) cases in the Gaza Strip, which Israel and Egypt have kept under a blockade allowing in only essential humanitarian aid, since the Islamist Hamas seized power in June 2007.

In the occupied West Bank, at least 1,250 cases of swine flu have been reported, with nine deaths, according to government figures.

In Israel, 67 people have died out of 8,539 confirmed A(H1N1) cases.

Since it was first uncovered in April, swine flu has reached into 207 countries, killing at least 8,768 people, according to World Health Organization figures.