Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip killed more than a dozen people overnight and on Saturday, hospital and local officials said, as health workers wrapped up the second phase of an urgent polio vaccination campaign designed to prevent a large-scale outbreak.
The vaccination campaign was launched after health authorities confirmed the first case of polio in the Palestinian enclave in 25 years, in a 10-month-old boy whose leg is paralyzed. The nine-day campaign by the UN health agency and its partners aims to vaccinate 640,000 children, an ambitious effort during a war that has destroyed Gaza’s health care system and much of its infrastructure. The third phase of vaccinations is underway in the north.
Meanwhile, Israel continued its military offensive. In the Nuseirat urban refugee camp in central Gaza, Al-Awda Hospital said it received the bodies of nine people killed in two separate airstrikes. One of them hit a residential building, killing four people and wounding at least ten, while five people were killed in an attack on a house in western Nuseirat.
Separately, Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital, the main hospital in central Gaza, reported that a woman and her two children were killed in an attack on a house in the nearby Bureij urban refugee camp.
In northern Gaza, an airstrike on a school converted into a shelter for displaced people in the town of Jabaliya killed at least four people and wounded about two dozen others, according to Gaza’s Civil Defense authority, which operates under Hamas rule in the territory. The Israeli military said the strike hit a Hamas command post embedded in a former school compound.
The war began when Hamas and other militants attacked Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Hamas is believed to still be holding more than 100 hostages. Israeli authorities estimate that about a third of them have been killed.
The Israeli retaliatory offensive has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which makes no distinction between civilians and combatants in its count. The ministry says more than 94,000 people have been wounded.
“Violence has also increased in the occupied West Bank. A multi-day military operation in Jenin left dozens dead. Israeli forces besieged the area and brought in bulldozers. As you can see, they destroyed the entire area,” said resident Mahmoud Al Razi.
On Friday, a 13-year-old girl and an American protester were shot dead in separate incidents in the West Bank.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, also a Turkish national, died after being shot in the head, two Palestinian medics said. The woman was protesting against Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Witnesses said she posed no threat to Israeli forces and was shot during a lull following earlier clashes.
The White House has said it is deeply shocked by the killing and has called on Israel to investigate. The Israeli military said it was looking into reports that troops had killed a foreign national while shooting at an instigator of violent activity in the area.
In a statement, her family said that given the circumstances of Aysenur’s murder, an Israeli investigation is not appropriate and urged President Joe Biden to order an independent inquiry. They called the recent college graduate a ray of sunshine and a champion of human dignity.
Separately, Palestinian health officials said Israeli fire killed 13-year-old Bana Laboom in the village of Qaryout.
The Israeli military said an initial investigation indicated security forces had been deployed to disperse a riot involving Palestinian and Israeli civilians, in which stone-throwing took place. Security forces fired into the air, it added.
More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, a territory captured by Israel in 1967. Israeli incursions, attacks by Palestinian militants against Israelis and attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians have left more than 690 Palestinians dead since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October, according to Palestinian health officials.
Israel has been under increasing pressure from the United States and other allies to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists that Israel maintain control of the Philadelphia corridor, a narrow strip along Gaza’s border with Egypt through which Israel claims Hamas smuggles weapons. Egypt and Hamas deny this.
Hamas has accused Israel of dragging out negotiations with new demands. Hamas has offered to release all hostages in exchange for an end to the war, a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including high-profile militants — broadly the terms demanded in a draft agreement unveiled by Biden in July.
Along the border with Lebanon, clashes continue almost daily between Israeli forces and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
An Israeli drone attacked a Lebanese Civil Defense team fighting a fire in the town of Froun, killing three volunteers and wounding two others, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said. The fire was sparked by an earlier Israeli strike, the statement said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the attack.
The Israeli military said some 45 rockets were fired at northern Israel in several volleys, many of them aimed at the Mount Meron area but landing in open areas. Several rockets landed in Shlomi and around the city of Safed. There were no injuries. The military later said its aircraft struck Hezbollah military infrastructure and a rocket launcher in the Qabrikha area of southern Lebanon.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First published: September 7, 2024 | 23:05 IS
Disclaimer
The information contained in this post is for general information purposes only. We make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the post for any purpose.
We respect the intellectual property rights of content creators. If you are the owner of any material featured on our website and have concerns about its use, please contact us. We are committed to addressing any copyright issues promptly and will remove any material within 2 days of receiving a request from the rightful owner.