Photo: Abdel Kareem Hana Associated Press Palestinians inspect the damage in a tented area of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, hit by Israeli shelling in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024.
Wafaa Shurafa – Associated Press and Samy Magdy – Associated Press in Deir al-Balah, Palestine
Published at 5:53 p.m.
- Middle East
Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip killed more than a dozen people overnight Friday into Saturday, hospital and local authorities said, as health workers completed the second phase of an urgent polio vaccination campaign aimed at preventing a large-scale outbreak.
The vaccination campaign was launched after health officials confirmed the first case of polio in the Palestinian enclave in 25 years, in a 10-month-old boy whose leg is now paralyzed. The nine-day campaign by the United Nations health agency and its partners aims to vaccinate 640,000 children, an ambitious effort during a war that has destroyed Gaza’s health system and much of its infrastructure. The third phase of vaccination will take place in the north.
Israel, meanwhile, continued its military offensive. In the urban refugee camp of Nusseirat in central Gaza, Al-Awda hospital said it had received the bodies of nine people killed in two separate airstrikes. One hit a residential building, killing four and wounding at least 10 others, while five people were killed in a strike on a house in western Nusseirat.
Photo: Abdel Kareem Hana Associated Press Palestinian children injured in an Israeli raid in the Gaza Strip are treated at a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on September 5.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the main hospital in central Gaza, also said a woman and her two children were killed in a strike on a house in the nearby Bureij urban refugee camp.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000In northern Gaza, an airstrike on a school converted into a shelter for displaced people in the city of Jabalia killed at least four people and wounded about 20 others, according to the Gaza Civil Defense Authority, which operates under the Hamas government. The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas command post built into 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 officials estimate that about a third of them are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally. The ministry said more than 94,000 people were wounded.
Violence has also increased in the occupied West Bank. A days-long military operation in Jenin has left dozens dead.
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, who also had Turkish citizenship, died after being shot in the head, two Palestinian medics said. She was protesting Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Witnesses said she posed no threat to Israeli forces and was shot during a lull after earlier clashes.
The White House said it was “deeply troubled” by the killing and called on Israel to investigate. The Israeli military said it was investigating reports that troops killed a foreign national by shooting at an “instigator of violent activity” in the area.
More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, a territory captured and colonized by Israel since 1967. Israeli raids, attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis and attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians have killed more than 690 Palestinians since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October, according to Palestinian health officials.
Israel is under increasing pressure from the United States and other allies to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu persists in favoring the arms route and insists on maintaining Israeli control of the Philadelphia Corridor, a narrow strip along Gaza’s border with Egypt where Israel claims Hamas is smuggling weapons. Egypt and Hamas deny the allegations.