Two women and two children died in a single strike on Nuseirat, one of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps. Medics counted them on Friday among at least 27 Palestinians killed by Israeli military fire across the Strip that day.
Elsewhere, eight more people died in two separate airstrikes on Gaza City, medics said. Further strikes across the enclave accounted for the remaining dead.
Fighting on several fronts
Ground combat continued alongside the bombing. Israeli forces were fighting Hamas in Zeitoun, a suburb of Gaza City, where residents said tanks had been working for more than a week. Fighting also continued in the eastern neighbourhoods of Khan Younis. In Rafah, by the Egyptian border, residents said troops had demolished several houses with explosives.
The war was eleven months old. Rounds of diplomacy had produced no ceasefire, no release of the hostages held in Gaza, and no freedom for the many Palestinians jailed in Israel. Each side blamed the other for the failure of mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the United States. Washington was preparing a fresh proposal, though prospects of a breakthrough looked dim.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a press briefing that Israel and Hamas both had to say yes on what was left. Nearly 90% of the deal was settled, he said, but critical gaps remained, among them the Philadelphi corridor along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt. Israel has said it will not leave that strip. Hamas says no deal is possible unless it does.
Polio drops in the middle of it
Health workers spent the same days vaccinating children. The campaign began after a one-year-old baby was found partially paralysed, the first known polio case in Gaza in 25 years. Gaza’s health system has all but collapsed, and many hospitals have been knocked out by the war.
UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said at least 160,000 children received drops on Thursday in the south, where the second stage had just started. That stage relied on an agreement between Israel and Hamas for limited pauses in the fighting. Families from Khan Younis and displaced households from Rafah kept crowding into clinics.
“Since 1 September @UNRWA & partners have vaccinated nearly 355,000 children against #polio in #Gaza middle & southern areas,” the agency wrote on X. It added that it aimed to reach around 640,000 children under 10.
Juliette Touma, UNRWA’s Director of Communications, called the campaign very welcome progress. She said the agency was working with UNICEF, the World Health Organization and local health partners around the clock. Even so, she told Reuters: “These temporary pauses do not however replace our calls for a ceasefire, it’s long overdue.”
The campaign moves on Sunday to northern Gaza, the focus of the main Israeli offensive over the previous 11 months. The World Health Organization says a second round of vaccinations is needed four weeks after the first.
Sources
- Israeli airstrikes kill 27 in Gaza, Gaza Civil Defence says * Brussels Post News
- Israeli airstrikes kill 27 in Gaza as polio vaccination campaign resumes – Daily Times
