The Israeli authorities accepted a series of “humanitarian pauses” three days each in central, southern and northern Gaza to launch a child polio vaccination campaign starting Sunday, a World Health Organization (WHO) official announced Thursday, August 29.
“The campaign will begin on September 1, in central Gaza, for three days, and there will be a humanitarian pause.” for several hours each day, said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in Gaza, during a video press conference, specifying that the same system is planned for the south and the north of the territory for the first of the two vaccination waves. “There is an agreement and we hope that all parties will respect it. Otherwise it will be impossible to conduct a real campaign.” vaccination, he insisted.
Israeli authorities had no immediate comment. On Wednesday night into Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that it was not a case of “Ceasefire on polio vaccination but provision of certain places” in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Hamas movement assured him ” hold “ the beginning of a “humanitarian truce”.
After 25 years of absence in Palestinian territory, the first case of polio was recently confirmed in Gaza in a ten-month-old baby in Deir al-Balah, following the detection of poliovirus in wastewater samples collected in late June in Khan Younes and Deir el-Balah.
Raid in the West Bank
The Israeli army claimed on Thursday, August 29, to have killed seven Palestinians, on the second day of an operation launched in several towns and refugee camps in the northern occupied West Bank, which it said left 16 dead. The army claimed to have eliminated “Five terrorists hiding in a mosque” in the Nour Shams camp in the West Bank city of Tulkarem on the second day of“anti-terrorist operation” carried out by the Jewish State in several cities and refugee camps in the north of the occupied Palestinian territory. The army also declared during the day to have killed two Palestinians, also presented as “terrorists”in Jenin, in the northern West Bank.
“ One of the terrorists eliminated was Muhamad Jabber, “Abu Shujaa”, leader of a terrorist network in Nour Shams. (…), Jabber was involved in numerous terrorist attacks, including a shooting in which an Israeli civilian, Amnon Muchtar, was killed in June. Jabber was also involved in planning other terrorist attacks. Another terrorist operative was arrested by police »the Israeli military wrote on Telegram. On June 22, an Israeli man in his sixties was shot dead in Qalqilya, a Palestinian town in the northern West Bank.
Shortly afterwards, Islamic Jihad confirmed the death of Muhammad Jabber. during this Israeli operation. “Abu Shujaa, commander of the Tulkarem brigade of the Al-Quds brigades”the armed wing of the Islamist movement, which is deeply rooted in the refugee camps in the north of the West Bank, “He died with several of his brothers in his brigade after a heroic fight against the occupation soldiers” Israeli, the movement said in a statement.
At least 12 dead since Wednesday
Islamic Jihad still ensures that‘“Abu Shujaa” had in the past “escaped assassination attempts and arrest” by Israeli troops, who have increased their raids in recent months against Palestinian camps and towns in the autonomous zones.
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This operation, which raises the number of deaths since Wednesday in the West Bank to at least 12, according to the Ministry of Health controlled by the Palestinian Authority, has raised concerns at the UN, which has warned of the risk “worsening an already catastrophic situation” in Palestinian territory, while the war in Gaza continues.
In Nour Shams, the armed branches of the various Palestinian movements regularly announce that they have lost men, in fighting with soldiers or during attacks by Israeli planes. More than 13,000 Palestinians are crammed into a fifth of a square kilometre in the camp, opened in 1952 to house Palestinians who fled or were forced to flee from villages around Haifa on the coast during the creation of Israel four years earlier.
According to the UN, which runs the camp, it is one of the 19 camps in the West Bank most affected by health problems. Its proximity to a sewage canal periodically exposes it to flooding, increasing the risk of epidemics.
Clashes in Jenin
During the morning, residents also informed Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the Israeli army had withdrawn from the Al-Faraa camp in Tubas, where several Palestinians were killed on Wednesday. The Israeli army stated that it had “deleted” nine Palestinian fighters after launching columns of armoured vehicles overnight on Jenin, Tulkarem, Toubas and their refugee camps, where armed groups fighting Israel are particularly active.
On Thursday morning, clashes continued in Jenin, where an Israeli drone flew over the city, according to an AFP journalist. The Palestinian Red Crescent announced that it had lost contact with its teams in the city. It said telephone and internet networks were cut off. Israeli soldiers also continued to operate in Tulkarem, according to another AFP journalist.
Israeli raids into Palestinian autonomous areas are a daily occurrence in the West Bank. However, it is rare for them to take place simultaneously in several towns as occurred overnight Tuesday into Wednesday. In recent weeks, Israeli operations in the West Bank have focused on the north of the territory, where armed groups fighting against Israel are particularly active.
