CAIRO: Palestinian officials reported on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed 36 Palestinians in the last 24 hours while battling Hamas fighters in Gaza and the West Bank. However, there were brief breaks in the fighting that allowed medical professionals to vaccinate children against polio for the third time.
According to the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service, among those slain were eight persons close to a hospital in Gaza City in the north and four women in the southern city of Rafah. It added that more people have died in several airstrikes conducted throughout the region.
Near Gaza City’s Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, the Israeli military claimed to have killed eight Palestinian fighters, among them a senior Hamas commander.
The armed branch of Islamic Jihad and Hamas claimed to be fighting Israeli soldiers in the southern towns of Rafah and Khan Younis, as well as in the Zeitoun district of Gaza City.
According to WHO, immunization rates for polio have surpassed initial goals.
As a massive Israeli operation in the cities of Jenin and Tulkarm proceeded for a seventh day, Israeli soldiers killed three individuals on Tuesday in the occupied West Bank, including a 16-year-old Palestinian girl, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Lujain Osama Musleh, the girl’s name, was slain in the town of Kafr Dan, which is not far from Jenin. Israeli troops have been stationed there for several days, and on Tuesday they destroyed a house.
While stating that it was investigating the report, the military withheld immediate specifics of the occurrence. The Palestinian Health Ministry said that two Palestinians were also murdered in the city of Tulkarm.
On Tuesday, day three of a widespread campaign, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that it had vaccinated almost 25% of children under ten, exceeding its targets for the disease.
Israel and Hamas militants fight in different parts of the confined enclave every day for eight hours. This strategy was expedited after the first case of polio in a baby in Gaza was discovered last month.
However, diplomatic efforts to bring about a long-term ceasefire, free Israeli and foreign detainees detained in Gaza, and free a large number of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel have come to a standstill.
Remaining in the Philadelphi corridor on Gaza’s southern edge, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement on Monday represents a major obstacle to a compromise that would cease hostilities and return prisoners.
Hamas claims that this and other conditions would thwart a compromise. Hamas seeks an agreement to stop the war and see Israeli forces withdraw from the whole Gaza Strip. According to Netanyahu, the battle will only cease until Hamas is destroyed.
campaign against polio
On the third day of a convoluted campaign to vaccinate over 640,000 children in Gaza, the United Nations, working with the local health authorities, got underway.
In comparison to an estimate of about 150,000, the WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian territory, Rik Peeperkorn, informed reporters in Geneva that in the first two days of the campaign, the organization had immunized almost 161,000 children under the age of ten in the central area.
“Things are going well so far,” he stated. “So far, these humanitarian pauses have proven effective. There are still ten days left. According to him, there are youngsters in southern Gaza who are believed to be outside the designated area for the pauses, and talks are still ongoing to find them.
Palestinians claim that the destruction of the majority of Gaza’s hospitals and the collapse of the health sector are major factors in the polio outbreak. Hamas disputes Israel’s accusations that it exploits hospitals for military operations.
Since October 7, Israel’s military assault on Gaza has resulted in more than 40,819 Palestinian deaths and 94,291 injuries, according to the Gaza Health Ministry’s report on Tuesday.
