Israeli attacks in Gaza kill 33 Palestinians but pauses allow third day of polio vaccinations
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WHO said it was ahead of its targets for polio vaccinations in Gaza on Sept 3 and had inoculated about a quarter of children under 10.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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CAIRO – Israeli forces killed 33 Palestinians across Gaza over 24 hours as they battled Hamas-led militants, but brief pauses in fighting allowed medics to conduct a third day of polio vaccinations for more than 600,000 children in the enclave.
Among those killed were four women in the southern city of Rafah and eight people near a hospital in Gaza City in the north, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said on Sept 3.
Others were killed in separate air strikes across the territory, it added.
The Israeli military said it killed eight Palestinian gunmen, including a senior Hamas commander who took part in the Oct 7 attacks in Israel,
A statement said Ahmed Fozi Nazer Muhammad Wadia took command of a “massacre of civilians carried out by Hamas terrorists” in Israel’s Netiv HaAsara community near the Gaza border. There was no response from Hamas.
The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they were battling Israeli forces in the Zeitoun suburb of Gaza City and also in Rafah and Khan Younis in the south.
Nevertheless, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said it was ahead of its targets for polio vaccinations in Gaza on Sept 3 – day three of a mass campaign – and had inoculated about a quarter of children under 10.
The campaign, which was hastened by the discovery in August of a baby with polio
But diplomatic efforts to secure a permanent ceasefire, the release of foreign and Israeli hostages held in Gaza and the return of many Palestinians jailed by Israel have stalled.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sept 2 that Israeli troops would remain in the Philadelphi Corridor on the southern edge of Gaza, one of the main sticking points in reaching a deal to end the fighting and return hostages.
Hamas, which wants an agreement to end the war and see Israeli forces out of all of Gaza, says such a condition, among some others, would prevent a deal.
Mr Netanyahu says the war can end only when Hamas is eradicated.
The UN, in collaboration with the local health authorities, embarked on the third day of a complex campaign to vaccinate around 640,000 children in Gaza.
Mr Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territories, told reporters in Geneva that the agency had vaccinated more than 161,000 children under 10 in the central area in the first two days of its campaign, compared with a projection of around 150,000.
“Up until now, things are going well,” he said. “These humanitarian pauses, up until now they work. We still have 10 days to go.”
He said some children in southern Gaza were thought to be outside the agreed zone for the pauses and negotiations continued in order to reach them.
Palestinians say a key reason for the return of polio is the collapse of the health system and the destruction of most Gaza hospitals. Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes, which the Islamist group denies. REUTERS
