[🇧🇩] Israel and Hamas war in Gaza-----Can Bangladesh be a peace broker?
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UN humanitarian operations in Gaza forced to halt: official
The United Nations said Monday it had been forced to halt its humanitarian operations in Gaza due to a new Israeli evacuation order for the Deir al-Balah area, a senior UN official said
UN humanitarian operations in Gaza forced to halt: official
Photo: AFP
The United Nations said Monday it had been forced to halt its humanitarian operations in Gaza due to a new Israeli evacuation order for the Deir al-Balah area, a senior UN official said.
"We are not operating today. As of this morning, we're not operating in Gaza," the official said, adding that since the start of the war the UN has sometimes had to "delay or take a pause."
"This is not a decision that we're saying we're stopping to operate, but practically we cannot operate," the official said.
Photo: AFP
The United Nations said Monday it had been forced to halt its humanitarian operations in Gaza due to a new Israeli evacuation order for the Deir al-Balah area, a senior UN official said.
"We are not operating today. As of this morning, we're not operating in Gaza," the official said, adding that since the start of the war the UN has sometimes had to "delay or take a pause."
"This is not a decision that we're saying we're stopping to operate, but practically we cannot operate," the official said.
According to the official, the UN "had relocated most of our personnel in our operations" to Deir al-Balah following a Rafah evacuation order several months ago.
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Gaza death toll rises to 40,476
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Tuesday that at least 40,476 people have been killed in the war between Israel and Palestinian militants, now in its 11th month...
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Gaza death toll rises to 40,476
Agence France-Presse . Palestinian Territories 27 August, 2024, 23:29
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Tuesday that at least 40,476 people have been killed in the war between Israel and Palestinian militants, now in its 11th month.
The toll includes 41 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to ministry figures, which also list 93,647 people as wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.
The Israeli military said it rescued an Israeli hostage in Gaza on Tuesday. Kaid Farhan Alkadi, a 52-year-old Israeli Bedouin, was abducted by Palestinian militants during the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the military said in a statement.
‘Alkadi was rescued in a complex operation in the southern Gaza Strip,’ the statement said, adding that he was in a stable condition and being transferred to a hospital for a medical check-up.
Alkadi is from Rahat, a predominantly Arab town. On October 7, he had been working as a guard at a warehouse in southern Israel when he was seized by militants.
Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum described his rescue as ‘miraculous’.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was ‘working tirelessly to bring all our hostages back’, in a video issued shortly after he spoke with Alkadi.
The United States struck a cautious note of optimism on Monday regarding efforts to clinch a Gaza ceasefire and the release of the remaining hostages.
Their fate is central to on-going truce talks in Cairo, with relatives and supporters piling pressure on the Israeli government in weekly protests demanding their return home.
In Washington, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters ‘there continues to be progress’ and that the talks would continue and involve ‘working groups’ for several days.
A key sticking point in the talks has been Israel’s insistence on keeping control of the so-called Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, to stop Hamas from rearming, something the militant group has refused to countenance.
Cairo, which has been mediating the talks alongside Qatar and the United States, insisted on Monday that ‘it will not accept any Israeli presence’ along the corridor, Egyptian state-linked Al-Qahera news reported, citing a high-level source.
The more than 10 months of war in Gaza have so far seen only one truce that lasted for a week starting November 24.
During that period 105 hostages were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Tuesday’s hostage rescue came as the violence showed no signs of abating in a war that has ravaged Gaza, displaced nearly all of its population at least once and triggered a humanitarian crisis.
It also came as the United Nations warned of the worsening humanitarian situation in the territory, where the Israeli army ordered a new evacuation and carried out more deadly strikes.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said such orders ‘severely’ hampered its ‘ability to deliver essential support and services’.
Agence France-Presse . Palestinian Territories 27 August, 2024, 23:29
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Tuesday that at least 40,476 people have been killed in the war between Israel and Palestinian militants, now in its 11th month.
The toll includes 41 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to ministry figures, which also list 93,647 people as wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.
The Israeli military said it rescued an Israeli hostage in Gaza on Tuesday. Kaid Farhan Alkadi, a 52-year-old Israeli Bedouin, was abducted by Palestinian militants during the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the military said in a statement.
‘Alkadi was rescued in a complex operation in the southern Gaza Strip,’ the statement said, adding that he was in a stable condition and being transferred to a hospital for a medical check-up.
Alkadi is from Rahat, a predominantly Arab town. On October 7, he had been working as a guard at a warehouse in southern Israel when he was seized by militants.
Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum described his rescue as ‘miraculous’.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was ‘working tirelessly to bring all our hostages back’, in a video issued shortly after he spoke with Alkadi.
The United States struck a cautious note of optimism on Monday regarding efforts to clinch a Gaza ceasefire and the release of the remaining hostages.
Their fate is central to on-going truce talks in Cairo, with relatives and supporters piling pressure on the Israeli government in weekly protests demanding their return home.
In Washington, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters ‘there continues to be progress’ and that the talks would continue and involve ‘working groups’ for several days.
A key sticking point in the talks has been Israel’s insistence on keeping control of the so-called Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, to stop Hamas from rearming, something the militant group has refused to countenance.
Cairo, which has been mediating the talks alongside Qatar and the United States, insisted on Monday that ‘it will not accept any Israeli presence’ along the corridor, Egyptian state-linked Al-Qahera news reported, citing a high-level source.
The more than 10 months of war in Gaza have so far seen only one truce that lasted for a week starting November 24.
During that period 105 hostages were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Tuesday’s hostage rescue came as the violence showed no signs of abating in a war that has ravaged Gaza, displaced nearly all of its population at least once and triggered a humanitarian crisis.
It also came as the United Nations warned of the worsening humanitarian situation in the territory, where the Israeli army ordered a new evacuation and carried out more deadly strikes.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said such orders ‘severely’ hampered its ‘ability to deliver essential support and services’.
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Deadly Israeli raids in West Bank as Gaza war rages
The war in Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the territory’s health ministry, while Israel’s offensive has caused widespread destruction and displacement
en.prothomalo.com
Deadly Israeli raids in West Bank as Gaza war rages
AFP Jenin, Palestinian Territories
Published: 29 Aug 2024, 09: 07
This handout picture released by the Israeli army on 28 August 2024 reportedly shows an Israeli main battle tank during operations to investigate and destroy a tunnel in the central Gaza corridor by the 16th Brigade AFP
Israel launched a large-scale operation Wednesday in the occupied West Bank, where the military said it killed Palestinian fighters, as the nearly 11-month-old Gaza war showed no signs of abating.
The military said its forces killed nine militants while the Palestinian health ministry reported 11 deaths in the West Bank, where violence has surged during the war sparked by Gaza rulers Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel.
Children were among those killed, according to the United Nations, while Hamas said the fatalities included three members of its armed wing in the Jenin refugee camp.
The war in Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the territory’s health ministry, while Israel’s offensive has caused widespread destruction and displacement.
Early Wednesday, Israel launched coordinated raids across four northern West Bank cities -- Jenin, Nablus, Tubas and Tulkarem -- where the military has focused much of its recent operations.
Armoured columns entered two refugee camps, in Tulkarem and Tubas, as well as Jenin, where an AFP correspondent said gunfire and explosions were heard into the evening.
The Red Crescent said the Palestinian health authority claimed Israeli forces killed 11 people and wounded 24 in the raids. Its West Bank chief Younes al-Khatib said ambulances came under Israeli fire and “one of our staffers was hit”.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the Israeli operations took place “in close proximity to four hospitals” and at least some “have been surrounded”, affecting the movement of medical teams.
Guterres “calls for an immediate cessation of these operations,” a later statement from his office said.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas cut short a visit to Saudi Arabia and headed home to “follow up on the latest developments”, Palestinian official media said.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II told visiting US lawmakers a Gaza truce was needed “to stop the cycle of violence in the region”, according to a royal statement.
Violence also raged in the Gaza Strip, where the civil defence agency reported Israeli strikes killed at least 12 people, and in Lebanon, where Israel’s military said it killed a “significant” Palestinian militant.
Israel ‘destroyed’ infrastructure
In the West Bank, Tulkarem Governor Mostafa Taqataqa told AFP the raids were “a dangerous signal and unprecedented”.
Tulkarem municipal worker Hakim Abu Safiyeh said Israeli forces “attacked the infrastructure, in particular in the city of Tulkarem and the Nur Shams camp” and “destroyed” water and sewage systems.
Israeli bulldozers dug up asphalt from the streets, with the army saying it was looking for roadside bombs.
Ahmed Zahran, from the Red Crescent, said that “medical teams have been hindered since the start of the assault”, with entrances to Nur Shams camp and hospitals closed.
The army reported no casualties on its side in exchanges with militants.
The military carries out daily raids in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, but it is rare for these to happen in multiple cities simultaneously.
Such incursions have intensified since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government with far-right settler ministers took office in December 2022.
According to military spokesman Nadav Shoshani, Wednesday’s operation was not “extremely different” from regular activity.
But Foreign Minister Israel Katz called it “a war” aiming to “dismantle Iranian-Islamic terror infrastructure”.
Posting on social media platform X, he appealed for Israeli forces to act “with the same determination... (as) in Gaza, including temporary evacuation of residents.”
The vast majority of Gazans have been compelled to flee their homes.
The UN Human Rights Office said Israel’s raids risk “deepening the already catastrophic situation” in the West Bank.
Since 7 October, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 637 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to UN figures, and Palestinian attacks have killed at least 19 Israelis, officials say.
Israel’s ‘expansion’ of war
Washington on Wednesday announced sanctions on an Israeli settler group the State Department said was involved in violence against Palestinians and the forced displacement of some 250 villagers earlier this year.
Netanyahu’s office said he viewed the new sanctions “with utmost severity”.
Jordan, which borders the West Bank and Israel, called for international action to stop “the radicalism of this Israeli government”.
“Israel’s expansion of its war against Palestinians in the occupied WB is a dangerous escalation that must be stopped,” Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on X.
Hamas official Izzat Rishq saw it as a call to “expand the spiral of destruction and genocide”.
Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian movement allied with Hamas which has a strong presence in the northern West Bank, denounced an “open war” by Israel.
Israel’s military later said a strike in the Syria-Lebanon border area killed a “significant” Islamic Jihad operations officer. A Syrian war monitor reported four dead.
‘Our children are dying’
In Gaza, medical charity Doctors Without Borders said “nearly 650 patients have fled” the area around Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Deir el-Balah following Israeli evacuation orders.
Dujarric said Israeli forces shot at a UN humanitarian vehicle Tuesday, hitting it 10 times, even though it was “part of a convoy that had been fully coordinated” with the military.
An Israeli military spokesman had no immediate comment.
The UN’s World Food Programme said it was pausing its staff movements in Gaza “until further notice” after the “totally unacceptable” incident.
Hamas’s 7 October attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Palestinian militants also seized 251 people during the attack, 103 of whom are still captive in Gaza including 33 the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,534 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
Mediation seeking an end to the war continued in Qatar where an Israeli delegation was present Wednesday, said a source close to the negotiations.
In central Gaza’s Nuseirat, Samia Baker said the makeshift displacement camp she now lives in “is the street of death”.
“We have no water, the children have no food, no clothes, we have nothing,” she said. “We appeal to the world to help us get out of this place. Our children are dying.”
AFP Jenin, Palestinian Territories
Published: 29 Aug 2024, 09: 07
This handout picture released by the Israeli army on 28 August 2024 reportedly shows an Israeli main battle tank during operations to investigate and destroy a tunnel in the central Gaza corridor by the 16th Brigade AFP
Israel launched a large-scale operation Wednesday in the occupied West Bank, where the military said it killed Palestinian fighters, as the nearly 11-month-old Gaza war showed no signs of abating.
The military said its forces killed nine militants while the Palestinian health ministry reported 11 deaths in the West Bank, where violence has surged during the war sparked by Gaza rulers Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel.
Children were among those killed, according to the United Nations, while Hamas said the fatalities included three members of its armed wing in the Jenin refugee camp.
The war in Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the territory’s health ministry, while Israel’s offensive has caused widespread destruction and displacement.
Early Wednesday, Israel launched coordinated raids across four northern West Bank cities -- Jenin, Nablus, Tubas and Tulkarem -- where the military has focused much of its recent operations.
Armoured columns entered two refugee camps, in Tulkarem and Tubas, as well as Jenin, where an AFP correspondent said gunfire and explosions were heard into the evening.
The Red Crescent said the Palestinian health authority claimed Israeli forces killed 11 people and wounded 24 in the raids. Its West Bank chief Younes al-Khatib said ambulances came under Israeli fire and “one of our staffers was hit”.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the Israeli operations took place “in close proximity to four hospitals” and at least some “have been surrounded”, affecting the movement of medical teams.
Guterres “calls for an immediate cessation of these operations,” a later statement from his office said.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas cut short a visit to Saudi Arabia and headed home to “follow up on the latest developments”, Palestinian official media said.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II told visiting US lawmakers a Gaza truce was needed “to stop the cycle of violence in the region”, according to a royal statement.
Violence also raged in the Gaza Strip, where the civil defence agency reported Israeli strikes killed at least 12 people, and in Lebanon, where Israel’s military said it killed a “significant” Palestinian militant.
Israel ‘destroyed’ infrastructure
In the West Bank, Tulkarem Governor Mostafa Taqataqa told AFP the raids were “a dangerous signal and unprecedented”.
Tulkarem municipal worker Hakim Abu Safiyeh said Israeli forces “attacked the infrastructure, in particular in the city of Tulkarem and the Nur Shams camp” and “destroyed” water and sewage systems.
Israeli bulldozers dug up asphalt from the streets, with the army saying it was looking for roadside bombs.
Ahmed Zahran, from the Red Crescent, said that “medical teams have been hindered since the start of the assault”, with entrances to Nur Shams camp and hospitals closed.
The army reported no casualties on its side in exchanges with militants.
The military carries out daily raids in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, but it is rare for these to happen in multiple cities simultaneously.
Such incursions have intensified since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government with far-right settler ministers took office in December 2022.
According to military spokesman Nadav Shoshani, Wednesday’s operation was not “extremely different” from regular activity.
But Foreign Minister Israel Katz called it “a war” aiming to “dismantle Iranian-Islamic terror infrastructure”.
Posting on social media platform X, he appealed for Israeli forces to act “with the same determination... (as) in Gaza, including temporary evacuation of residents.”
The vast majority of Gazans have been compelled to flee their homes.
The UN Human Rights Office said Israel’s raids risk “deepening the already catastrophic situation” in the West Bank.
Since 7 October, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 637 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to UN figures, and Palestinian attacks have killed at least 19 Israelis, officials say.
Israel’s ‘expansion’ of war
Washington on Wednesday announced sanctions on an Israeli settler group the State Department said was involved in violence against Palestinians and the forced displacement of some 250 villagers earlier this year.
Netanyahu’s office said he viewed the new sanctions “with utmost severity”.
Jordan, which borders the West Bank and Israel, called for international action to stop “the radicalism of this Israeli government”.
“Israel’s expansion of its war against Palestinians in the occupied WB is a dangerous escalation that must be stopped,” Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on X.
Hamas official Izzat Rishq saw it as a call to “expand the spiral of destruction and genocide”.
Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian movement allied with Hamas which has a strong presence in the northern West Bank, denounced an “open war” by Israel.
Israel’s military later said a strike in the Syria-Lebanon border area killed a “significant” Islamic Jihad operations officer. A Syrian war monitor reported four dead.
‘Our children are dying’
In Gaza, medical charity Doctors Without Borders said “nearly 650 patients have fled” the area around Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Deir el-Balah following Israeli evacuation orders.
Dujarric said Israeli forces shot at a UN humanitarian vehicle Tuesday, hitting it 10 times, even though it was “part of a convoy that had been fully coordinated” with the military.
An Israeli military spokesman had no immediate comment.
The UN’s World Food Programme said it was pausing its staff movements in Gaza “until further notice” after the “totally unacceptable” incident.
Hamas’s 7 October attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Palestinian militants also seized 251 people during the attack, 103 of whom are still captive in Gaza including 33 the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,534 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
Mediation seeking an end to the war continued in Qatar where an Israeli delegation was present Wednesday, said a source close to the negotiations.
In central Gaza’s Nuseirat, Samia Baker said the makeshift displacement camp she now lives in “is the street of death”.
“We have no water, the children have no food, no clothes, we have nothing,” she said. “We appeal to the world to help us get out of this place. Our children are dying.”
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Israel air strike kills three on third day of West Bank raid
Israel said it killed three Hamas militants in an air strike in the occupied West Bank on Friday, taking the death toll from a large-scale military operation now in its...
www.newagebd.net
Israel air strike kills three on third day of West Bank raid
Agence France-Presse . Jenin, Palestinian Territories 31 August, 2024, 01:40
Israel said it killed three Hamas militants in an air strike in the occupied West Bank on Friday, taking the death toll from a large-scale military operation now in its third day to at least 19.
A top UN aid official meanwhile questioned ‘what has become of our basic humanity’, as the war raged on in Gaza where humanitarian operations struggled to respond.
In the United States, vice president Kamala Harris pledged she will not change Washington’s policy of supplying weapons to Israel if elected to the top job in November. But she stressed it was time to ‘end this war’ in Gaza.
Israel has described its raids on towns and refugee camps across the northern West Bank as ‘counter-terrorism’ operations.
They have killed at least 19 Palestinians since Wednesday, the military and the Palestinian health ministry said.
Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have said at least 13 of those killed were their fighters.
The military said it killed three Hamas militants in an air strike near the northern city of Jenin on Friday.
Witnesses said the strike hit a car in the town of Zababdeh, southeast of the city.
Israeli troops pulled back from other West Bank towns late Thursday but fighting raged on around Jenin, long a hub of militant activity.
An AFP journalist reported loud explosions from the city’s refugee camp and thick plumes of smoke rising from the area.
In Gaza, Israeli artillery pounded western areas of Gaza City early Friday, an AFP journalist said, while a medical source at the southern Nasser Hospital said an Israeli strike killed three people near the southern city of Khan Yunis.
The World Health Organisation said Israel had agreed to at least three days of ‘humanitarian pauses’ in parts of Gaza, starting Sunday, to facilitate a vaccination drive after the territory recorded its first case of polio in a quarter of a century.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the measures were ‘not a ceasefire’ in the nearly 11-month war.
The Israeli assault on the West Bank has caused significant destruction, especially in Tulkarem, whose governor Mustafa Taqatqa described the raids as ‘unprecedented’ and a ‘dangerous signal’.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group said at least 45 people had been detained in the West Bank since Wednesday. An Israeli military spokesman said ‘10 wanted individuals were arrested’.
Britain on Friday said it was ‘deeply’ concerned by the raids, urging Israel to ‘exercise restraint’ and adhere to international law.
France said the Israeli operations ‘worsen a climate of unprecedented instability and violence’, while Spain denounced ‘an outbreak of violence which is clearly unacceptable’.
Violence has surged in the West Bank since Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza.
The United Nations said on Wednesday that at least 637 Palestinians had been killed in the territory by Israeli troops or settlers since the Gaza war began.
Nineteen Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during army operations over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Israeli shelling in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza killed two people on Friday, the civil defence agency in the Hamas-ruled territory said.
The acting head of the UN humanitarian office, Joyce Msuya, said ‘more than 88 per cent of Gaza’s territory has come under an Israeli order to evacuate at some point’, adding civilians were being forced into just 11 per cent of the Gaza Strip.
‘It forces us to ask: what has become of our basic sense of humanity?’
Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Palestinians militants also seized 251 hostages, 103 of whom are still captive in Gaza including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,602 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
The war has devastated Gaza, repeatedly displaced most of its 2.4 million people and triggered a humanitarian crisis.
The military on Friday said it had wrapped up a month-long operation in southern and central Gaza that it said killed more than 250 Palestinian fighters.
Some Palestinians returned to find massive destruction in parts of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza and the main southern city of Khan Yunis.
In Khan Yunis, Amal al-Astal, 48, said: ‘We found our house destroyed and our neighbours’ houses destroyed as well. One of our neighbours’ corpses was decomposed there.’
Mohamed Abu Thuria said he had ‘found massive destruction everywhere’ on returning to Deir el-Balah.
The Gaza war has drawn in Iran-backed fighters from across the region, including Lebanon and Yemen, sparking fears that it could spread into a wider conflagration.
UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix on Friday warned that ‘there is still a very significant risk of escalation at the regional level’.
Agence France-Presse . Jenin, Palestinian Territories 31 August, 2024, 01:40
Israel said it killed three Hamas militants in an air strike in the occupied West Bank on Friday, taking the death toll from a large-scale military operation now in its third day to at least 19.
A top UN aid official meanwhile questioned ‘what has become of our basic humanity’, as the war raged on in Gaza where humanitarian operations struggled to respond.
In the United States, vice president Kamala Harris pledged she will not change Washington’s policy of supplying weapons to Israel if elected to the top job in November. But she stressed it was time to ‘end this war’ in Gaza.
Israel has described its raids on towns and refugee camps across the northern West Bank as ‘counter-terrorism’ operations.
They have killed at least 19 Palestinians since Wednesday, the military and the Palestinian health ministry said.
Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have said at least 13 of those killed were their fighters.
The military said it killed three Hamas militants in an air strike near the northern city of Jenin on Friday.
Witnesses said the strike hit a car in the town of Zababdeh, southeast of the city.
Israeli troops pulled back from other West Bank towns late Thursday but fighting raged on around Jenin, long a hub of militant activity.
An AFP journalist reported loud explosions from the city’s refugee camp and thick plumes of smoke rising from the area.
In Gaza, Israeli artillery pounded western areas of Gaza City early Friday, an AFP journalist said, while a medical source at the southern Nasser Hospital said an Israeli strike killed three people near the southern city of Khan Yunis.
The World Health Organisation said Israel had agreed to at least three days of ‘humanitarian pauses’ in parts of Gaza, starting Sunday, to facilitate a vaccination drive after the territory recorded its first case of polio in a quarter of a century.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the measures were ‘not a ceasefire’ in the nearly 11-month war.
The Israeli assault on the West Bank has caused significant destruction, especially in Tulkarem, whose governor Mustafa Taqatqa described the raids as ‘unprecedented’ and a ‘dangerous signal’.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group said at least 45 people had been detained in the West Bank since Wednesday. An Israeli military spokesman said ‘10 wanted individuals were arrested’.
Britain on Friday said it was ‘deeply’ concerned by the raids, urging Israel to ‘exercise restraint’ and adhere to international law.
France said the Israeli operations ‘worsen a climate of unprecedented instability and violence’, while Spain denounced ‘an outbreak of violence which is clearly unacceptable’.
Violence has surged in the West Bank since Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza.
The United Nations said on Wednesday that at least 637 Palestinians had been killed in the territory by Israeli troops or settlers since the Gaza war began.
Nineteen Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during army operations over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Israeli shelling in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza killed two people on Friday, the civil defence agency in the Hamas-ruled territory said.
The acting head of the UN humanitarian office, Joyce Msuya, said ‘more than 88 per cent of Gaza’s territory has come under an Israeli order to evacuate at some point’, adding civilians were being forced into just 11 per cent of the Gaza Strip.
‘It forces us to ask: what has become of our basic sense of humanity?’
Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Palestinians militants also seized 251 hostages, 103 of whom are still captive in Gaza including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,602 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
The war has devastated Gaza, repeatedly displaced most of its 2.4 million people and triggered a humanitarian crisis.
The military on Friday said it had wrapped up a month-long operation in southern and central Gaza that it said killed more than 250 Palestinian fighters.
Some Palestinians returned to find massive destruction in parts of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza and the main southern city of Khan Yunis.
In Khan Yunis, Amal al-Astal, 48, said: ‘We found our house destroyed and our neighbours’ houses destroyed as well. One of our neighbours’ corpses was decomposed there.’
Mohamed Abu Thuria said he had ‘found massive destruction everywhere’ on returning to Deir el-Balah.
The Gaza war has drawn in Iran-backed fighters from across the region, including Lebanon and Yemen, sparking fears that it could spread into a wider conflagration.
UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix on Friday warned that ‘there is still a very significant risk of escalation at the regional level’.
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Israel, Hamas set three-day pauses in fighting for Gaza polio vaccinations
Israel's military and Palestinian militant group Hamas have agreed to three separate, zoned three-day pauses in fighting in Gaza to allow for the first round of vaccination of 640,000 children against polio, a senior WHO official said on Thursday. The vaccination campaign is due to start on Sunday
Israel, Hamas set three-day pauses in fighting for Gaza polio vaccinations
REUTERS
Published :
Aug 30, 2024 10:35
Updated :
Aug 30, 2024 10:35
Israel's military and Palestinian militant group Hamas have agreed to three separate, zoned three-day pauses in fighting in Gaza to allow for the first round of vaccination of 640,000 children against polio, a senior WHO official said on Thursday.
The vaccination campaign is due to start on Sunday, with the pauses scheduled to take place between 6 am and 3 pm (0300-1200 GMT), said Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization's senior official for the Palestinian territories.
He said the campaign would start in central Gaza with three consecutive daily pauses in fighting, then move to southern Gaza, where there would be another three-day pause, followed by northern Gaza. Peeperkorn added there was an agreement to extend the pause in each zone to a fourth day if needed.
"From our experience, we know an additional day or two is very often needed to achieve sufficient coverage," Mike Ryan, WHO emergencies director, told the UN Security Council on Thursday during a meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
A second round of vaccination would be required four weeks after the first round, said Peeperkorn.
"At least 90% of coverage is needed during each round of the campaign in order to stop the outbreak and prevent international spread of polio," Ryan said.
The WHO confirmed on Aug 23 that one baby has been paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in Gaza in 25 years.
"We are ready to cooperate with international organisations to secure this campaign, serving and protecting more than 650,000 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip," Hamas official Basem Naim told Reuters.
The Israeli military's humanitarian unit (COGAT) said on Wednesday that the vaccination campaign would be conducted in coordination with the Israeli military "as part of the routine humanitarian pauses that will allow the population to reach the medical centres where the vaccinations will be administered."
EVACUATION ORDERS
Israel was continuing a "focused and intensive effort" to deliver aid to Gaza and coordinate the polio vaccination campaign with WHO and UN children's agency UNICEF, Oren Marmorstein, spokesperson for Israel's foreign affairs ministry, posted on X.
Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood said it was important that Israel facilitate access and "ensure periods of calm and refrain from military operations during vaccination campaign periods." He added that the United States urged "Israel to avoid further evacuation orders during this period."
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct 7 when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's subsequent assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has since killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, while also displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Wednesday said aid operations in Gaza were "heavily restricted by hostilities, insecurity, and mass evacuation orders affecting aid transport routes and facilities."
Acting UN aid chief Joyce Msuya said on Thursday that for the first time in the nearly 11-month long war Israel had reversed an evacuation order for three blocks in Deir al-Balah, adding: "Our teams are working to confirm if we can now return to the premises we had to leave on 25 August."
The evacuation orders issued on Sunday had "led to the largest relocation of UN staff since we were forced to leave northern Gaza in October 2023," Msuya said, affecting some 200 staff, more than a dozen guesthouses used by the UN and aid groups and four UN warehouses.
REUTERS
Published :
Aug 30, 2024 10:35
Updated :
Aug 30, 2024 10:35
Israel's military and Palestinian militant group Hamas have agreed to three separate, zoned three-day pauses in fighting in Gaza to allow for the first round of vaccination of 640,000 children against polio, a senior WHO official said on Thursday.
The vaccination campaign is due to start on Sunday, with the pauses scheduled to take place between 6 am and 3 pm (0300-1200 GMT), said Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization's senior official for the Palestinian territories.
He said the campaign would start in central Gaza with three consecutive daily pauses in fighting, then move to southern Gaza, where there would be another three-day pause, followed by northern Gaza. Peeperkorn added there was an agreement to extend the pause in each zone to a fourth day if needed.
"From our experience, we know an additional day or two is very often needed to achieve sufficient coverage," Mike Ryan, WHO emergencies director, told the UN Security Council on Thursday during a meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
A second round of vaccination would be required four weeks after the first round, said Peeperkorn.
"At least 90% of coverage is needed during each round of the campaign in order to stop the outbreak and prevent international spread of polio," Ryan said.
The WHO confirmed on Aug 23 that one baby has been paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in Gaza in 25 years.
"We are ready to cooperate with international organisations to secure this campaign, serving and protecting more than 650,000 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip," Hamas official Basem Naim told Reuters.
The Israeli military's humanitarian unit (COGAT) said on Wednesday that the vaccination campaign would be conducted in coordination with the Israeli military "as part of the routine humanitarian pauses that will allow the population to reach the medical centres where the vaccinations will be administered."
EVACUATION ORDERS
Israel was continuing a "focused and intensive effort" to deliver aid to Gaza and coordinate the polio vaccination campaign with WHO and UN children's agency UNICEF, Oren Marmorstein, spokesperson for Israel's foreign affairs ministry, posted on X.
Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood said it was important that Israel facilitate access and "ensure periods of calm and refrain from military operations during vaccination campaign periods." He added that the United States urged "Israel to avoid further evacuation orders during this period."
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct 7 when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's subsequent assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has since killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, while also displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Wednesday said aid operations in Gaza were "heavily restricted by hostilities, insecurity, and mass evacuation orders affecting aid transport routes and facilities."
Acting UN aid chief Joyce Msuya said on Thursday that for the first time in the nearly 11-month long war Israel had reversed an evacuation order for three blocks in Deir al-Balah, adding: "Our teams are working to confirm if we can now return to the premises we had to leave on 25 August."
The evacuation orders issued on Sunday had "led to the largest relocation of UN staff since we were forced to leave northern Gaza in October 2023," Msuya said, affecting some 200 staff, more than a dozen guesthouses used by the UN and aid groups and four UN warehouses.
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Israeli troops on day four of deadly West Bank raid
Israel pressed on with a large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank against Palestinian militants for a fourth day Saturday, as fierce fighting raged in the nearly 11-month Gaza war...
www.newagebd.net
Israeli troops on day four of deadly West Bank raid
Agence France-Presse . Jenin 01 September, 2024, 00:26
Israel pressed on with a large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank against Palestinian militants for a fourth day Saturday, as fierce fighting raged in the nearly 11-month Gaza war.
Despite the clashes in Gaza, a local health official in the Hamas-run territory said polio vaccinations had begun there.
The World Health Organization says Israel has agreed to a series of three-day ‘humanitarian pauses’ to facilitate a mass vaccination campaign after the first confirmed case in Gaza in 25 years, although officials had said it was expected to begin on Sunday.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that the pauses are ‘not a ceasefire’.
As clashes and explosions persisted in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, Israel’s military said two Palestinians were killed while preparing to carry out separate bombings overnight in the southern West Bank.
Hamas hailed the twin attacks as a ‘heroic operation’.
Hamas ally Islamic Jihad, which has a strong presence in the northern West Bank, said it ‘congratulates’ those involved in what it called a ‘coordinated attack’.
The Israeli army described a vehicle explosion at a petrol station in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc as ‘an attempted car bombing by a terrorist’ who was later killed.
An army officer ‘was moderately injured, and a reservist officer responsible for the security in a nearby community sustained minor injuries’, it said in a statement.
In the second incident, the head of security in the Israeli settlement of Karmei Zur engaged in a car chase with a ‘terrorist’ who had infiltrated the settlement compound, leading to a collision and ‘the terrorist being neutralised shortly after’, the statement said.
‘During the confrontation, an explosive device in the terrorist’s car detonated,’ it added.
At least 20 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army since Wednesday in simultaneous raids in several cities across the northern West Bank.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad have said at least 13 of the dead were members of their armed wings.
Since Friday, soldiers have concentrated their operations on the city of Jenin and its refugee camps, long a bastion of Palestinian armed groups fighting against Israel.
On Saturday morning, an AFP photographer in Jenin heard ongoing clashes in the city, where the streets were mostly empty save for armoured vehicles, including one that blocked access to the government hospital.
‘I think it’s the worst day since the start of the raid... We hear from time to time clashes and sometimes there is big bombing,’ said hospital director Wisam Bakr.
Water and electricity were cut off from the hospital during the raid, forcing it to rely on a generator and water tank, he told AFP.
Violence has surged in the West Bank since Hamas’s October 7 attack.
The United Nations said Wednesday that at least 637 Palestinians had been killed in the territory by Israeli troops or settlers since the Gaza war began.
Nineteen Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during army operations over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Among those killed since Wednesday were an 82-year-old man, said the Palestinian news agency Wafa, and two teenagers, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, which said another 55 had been wounded.
Britain, France and Spain expressed concerns about Israel’s West Bank operation, with Madrid denouncing ‘an outbreak of violence which is clearly unacceptable’.
In Gaza, Israel pushed on with its deadly offensive in response to Hamas’s October 7 attack.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said rescuers had pulled 29 bodies from the rubble since dawn and transported dozens of wounded to hospitals across the devastated territory.
On Friday, a medical source at the southern Nasser Hospital said an Israeli strike killed three people near the southern city of Khan Yunis.
Israeli shelling in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza killed two people on the same day, the civil defence agency said.
The fighting has devastated Gaza, repeatedly displaced most of its 2.4 million people and triggered a humanitarian crisis.
Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 40,691 people in Gaza.
The war has drawn in Iran-backed groups from around the region and raised fears of a wider conflict.
On Saturday, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it had launched ‘explosives-laden drones’ at Israel’s Beit Hillel barracks ‘in response’ to Israeli attacks.
Agence France-Presse . Jenin 01 September, 2024, 00:26
Israel pressed on with a large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank against Palestinian militants for a fourth day Saturday, as fierce fighting raged in the nearly 11-month Gaza war.
Despite the clashes in Gaza, a local health official in the Hamas-run territory said polio vaccinations had begun there.
The World Health Organization says Israel has agreed to a series of three-day ‘humanitarian pauses’ to facilitate a mass vaccination campaign after the first confirmed case in Gaza in 25 years, although officials had said it was expected to begin on Sunday.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that the pauses are ‘not a ceasefire’.
As clashes and explosions persisted in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, Israel’s military said two Palestinians were killed while preparing to carry out separate bombings overnight in the southern West Bank.
Hamas hailed the twin attacks as a ‘heroic operation’.
Hamas ally Islamic Jihad, which has a strong presence in the northern West Bank, said it ‘congratulates’ those involved in what it called a ‘coordinated attack’.
The Israeli army described a vehicle explosion at a petrol station in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc as ‘an attempted car bombing by a terrorist’ who was later killed.
An army officer ‘was moderately injured, and a reservist officer responsible for the security in a nearby community sustained minor injuries’, it said in a statement.
In the second incident, the head of security in the Israeli settlement of Karmei Zur engaged in a car chase with a ‘terrorist’ who had infiltrated the settlement compound, leading to a collision and ‘the terrorist being neutralised shortly after’, the statement said.
‘During the confrontation, an explosive device in the terrorist’s car detonated,’ it added.
At least 20 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army since Wednesday in simultaneous raids in several cities across the northern West Bank.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad have said at least 13 of the dead were members of their armed wings.
Since Friday, soldiers have concentrated their operations on the city of Jenin and its refugee camps, long a bastion of Palestinian armed groups fighting against Israel.
On Saturday morning, an AFP photographer in Jenin heard ongoing clashes in the city, where the streets were mostly empty save for armoured vehicles, including one that blocked access to the government hospital.
‘I think it’s the worst day since the start of the raid... We hear from time to time clashes and sometimes there is big bombing,’ said hospital director Wisam Bakr.
Water and electricity were cut off from the hospital during the raid, forcing it to rely on a generator and water tank, he told AFP.
Violence has surged in the West Bank since Hamas’s October 7 attack.
The United Nations said Wednesday that at least 637 Palestinians had been killed in the territory by Israeli troops or settlers since the Gaza war began.
Nineteen Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during army operations over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Among those killed since Wednesday were an 82-year-old man, said the Palestinian news agency Wafa, and two teenagers, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, which said another 55 had been wounded.
Britain, France and Spain expressed concerns about Israel’s West Bank operation, with Madrid denouncing ‘an outbreak of violence which is clearly unacceptable’.
In Gaza, Israel pushed on with its deadly offensive in response to Hamas’s October 7 attack.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said rescuers had pulled 29 bodies from the rubble since dawn and transported dozens of wounded to hospitals across the devastated territory.
On Friday, a medical source at the southern Nasser Hospital said an Israeli strike killed three people near the southern city of Khan Yunis.
Israeli shelling in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza killed two people on the same day, the civil defence agency said.
The fighting has devastated Gaza, repeatedly displaced most of its 2.4 million people and triggered a humanitarian crisis.
Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 40,691 people in Gaza.
The war has drawn in Iran-backed groups from around the region and raised fears of a wider conflict.
On Saturday, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it had launched ‘explosives-laden drones’ at Israel’s Beit Hillel barracks ‘in response’ to Israeli attacks.
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Israel recovers hostage bodies from Gaza
Israel announced Sunday its troops had found six dead hostages in a Gaza tunnel, as Israeli police said a ‘shooting attack’ in the occupied West Bank killed three officers...
www.newagebd.net
Israel recovers hostage bodies from Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Palestinian Territories 01 September, 2024, 23:46
Israel announced Sunday its troops had found six dead hostages in a Gaza tunnel, as Israeli police said a ‘shooting attack’ in the occupied West Bank killed three officers.
The deadly shooting near Hebron added to surging violence in the West Bank, which is separated from Gaza by Israeli territory and where Israel has since Wednesday carried out a large-scale military operation that has sparked international concern.
In the besieged Gaza Strip, ‘humanitarian pauses’ in the nearly 11-month war between Israel and Hamas were set to take place to facilitate a massive polio vaccination drive which a health official said had begun.
Israel’s military said the remains of six hostages were recovered Saturday ‘from an underground tunnel in the Rafah area’ in southern Gaza and formally identified in Israel.
They were named as Carmel Gat, who was taken from a kibbutz community near the Gaza border, as well as Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Ori Danino, US-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin and Russian-Israeli Alexander Lobanov, who were seized by Palestinian militants from a music festival site.
Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said all six ‘were abducted alive on the morning of October 7’ and ‘brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them’.
US president Joe Biden said he was ‘devastated and outraged’ by their deaths, but told reporters he was ‘still optimistic’ a Gaza truce and hostage release deal can be reached.w
‘It’s time this war ended,’ said Biden, whose administration has been involved in ceasefire mediation efforts along with Qatar and Egypt.
EU top diplomat Josep Borrell said he was ‘horrified at the murder’ of the hostages, and British prime minister Keir Starmer expressed shock at their ‘senseless’ killing.
The six were among 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s October 7 attack that triggered the on-going war, 97 of whom remain captive in Gaza including 33 the army says are dead. Scores were released during a negotiated one-week truce in November.
Campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said a negotiated ‘deal for the return of the hostages’ was urgently needed.
‘Were it not for the delays, sabotage and excuses’ in months of mediation efforts, the six hostages ‘would likely still be alive’.
The families called for a nationwide general strike from Sunday night to force the government to reach a deal to secure the release of those still held.
A senior Hamas official said that ‘some’ of the six had been ‘approved’ for release in a potential hostage-prisoner swap as part of a deal yet to be agreed.
Critics in Israel have accused prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prolonging the war for political gain.
Speaking to Lobanov’s parents on Sunday, Netanyahu said: ‘I would like to tell you how much I regret and request forgiveness for not succeeding in bringing Sasha back alive.’
Qatar-based Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq said the six were ‘killed by Zionist Israeli bombing’, an accusation the military denied.
Netanyahu blamed Hamas leaders ‘who kill hostages and do not want an agreement’, vowing to ‘settle the score’ with them.
Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s offensive has killed at least 40,738 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
The fighting has devastated Gaza, repeatedly displaced most of its 2.4 million people and triggered a humanitarian crisis. Water, sanitation and medical facilities have been ravaged, contributing to the spread of preventable disease.
After the first confirmed polio case in 25 years, a Gaza health official said vaccinations began Saturday ahead of a wider campaign.
The World Health Organisation has said Israel agreed to a series of three-day ‘humanitarian pauses’ to facilitate the campaign that aims to reach some 6,40,000 children.
On Sunday, it was formally launched at three health centres in central Gaza, said Yasser Shaaban, director of Al-Awda hospital.
‘We hope this vaccination campaign for children will be calm,’ said Shaaban, noting there were ‘a lot of drones’ flying overhead.
Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, later said nearly 2,000 children were vaccinated initially Sunday.
But she added that they were anxious about later: ‘If the bombing continues after 2:00pm this is of course going to impact the vaccination campaign, the only way to do this is a ceasefire.’
Wateridge later reported a strike in the Nuseirat area.
The civil defence agency said an Israeli air strike killed two people in Gaza City further north, where an AFP correspondent also reported shelling early Sunday.
Israeli forces and Palestinian militants were battling in the West Bank Sunday, five days into major coordinated raids Israel’s military has described as ‘counter-terrorism’ operations.
A ‘shooting attack’ near Tarqumiya checkpoint in the Hebron area in the southern West Bank killed three people on Sunday, Israel’s emergency medical service said. The police said they were all members of the force.
The military said several assailants may have been involved.
In the northern West Bank, an AFP photographer saw Israeli bulldozers in Jenin’s city centre, a day after a local official said soldiers had destroyed most of the streets and power and water had been cut off in the adjacent refugee camp.
At least 22 Palestinians, including 14 claimed by militant groups, have been killed by the Israeli military since the start on Wednesday of simultaneous raids across the northern West Bank.
A 20-year-old soldier was killed Saturday.
The United Nations said Wednesday that at least 637 Palestinians had been killed in the territory by Israeli troops or settlers since the Gaza war began.
Twenty-three Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during army operations over the same period, according to official figures.
Agence France-Presse . Palestinian Territories 01 September, 2024, 23:46
Israel announced Sunday its troops had found six dead hostages in a Gaza tunnel, as Israeli police said a ‘shooting attack’ in the occupied West Bank killed three officers.
The deadly shooting near Hebron added to surging violence in the West Bank, which is separated from Gaza by Israeli territory and where Israel has since Wednesday carried out a large-scale military operation that has sparked international concern.
In the besieged Gaza Strip, ‘humanitarian pauses’ in the nearly 11-month war between Israel and Hamas were set to take place to facilitate a massive polio vaccination drive which a health official said had begun.
Israel’s military said the remains of six hostages were recovered Saturday ‘from an underground tunnel in the Rafah area’ in southern Gaza and formally identified in Israel.
They were named as Carmel Gat, who was taken from a kibbutz community near the Gaza border, as well as Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Ori Danino, US-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin and Russian-Israeli Alexander Lobanov, who were seized by Palestinian militants from a music festival site.
Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said all six ‘were abducted alive on the morning of October 7’ and ‘brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them’.
US president Joe Biden said he was ‘devastated and outraged’ by their deaths, but told reporters he was ‘still optimistic’ a Gaza truce and hostage release deal can be reached.w
‘It’s time this war ended,’ said Biden, whose administration has been involved in ceasefire mediation efforts along with Qatar and Egypt.
EU top diplomat Josep Borrell said he was ‘horrified at the murder’ of the hostages, and British prime minister Keir Starmer expressed shock at their ‘senseless’ killing.
The six were among 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s October 7 attack that triggered the on-going war, 97 of whom remain captive in Gaza including 33 the army says are dead. Scores were released during a negotiated one-week truce in November.
Campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said a negotiated ‘deal for the return of the hostages’ was urgently needed.
‘Were it not for the delays, sabotage and excuses’ in months of mediation efforts, the six hostages ‘would likely still be alive’.
The families called for a nationwide general strike from Sunday night to force the government to reach a deal to secure the release of those still held.
A senior Hamas official said that ‘some’ of the six had been ‘approved’ for release in a potential hostage-prisoner swap as part of a deal yet to be agreed.
Critics in Israel have accused prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prolonging the war for political gain.
Speaking to Lobanov’s parents on Sunday, Netanyahu said: ‘I would like to tell you how much I regret and request forgiveness for not succeeding in bringing Sasha back alive.’
Qatar-based Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq said the six were ‘killed by Zionist Israeli bombing’, an accusation the military denied.
Netanyahu blamed Hamas leaders ‘who kill hostages and do not want an agreement’, vowing to ‘settle the score’ with them.
Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s offensive has killed at least 40,738 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
The fighting has devastated Gaza, repeatedly displaced most of its 2.4 million people and triggered a humanitarian crisis. Water, sanitation and medical facilities have been ravaged, contributing to the spread of preventable disease.
After the first confirmed polio case in 25 years, a Gaza health official said vaccinations began Saturday ahead of a wider campaign.
The World Health Organisation has said Israel agreed to a series of three-day ‘humanitarian pauses’ to facilitate the campaign that aims to reach some 6,40,000 children.
On Sunday, it was formally launched at three health centres in central Gaza, said Yasser Shaaban, director of Al-Awda hospital.
‘We hope this vaccination campaign for children will be calm,’ said Shaaban, noting there were ‘a lot of drones’ flying overhead.
Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, later said nearly 2,000 children were vaccinated initially Sunday.
But she added that they were anxious about later: ‘If the bombing continues after 2:00pm this is of course going to impact the vaccination campaign, the only way to do this is a ceasefire.’
Wateridge later reported a strike in the Nuseirat area.
The civil defence agency said an Israeli air strike killed two people in Gaza City further north, where an AFP correspondent also reported shelling early Sunday.
Israeli forces and Palestinian militants were battling in the West Bank Sunday, five days into major coordinated raids Israel’s military has described as ‘counter-terrorism’ operations.
A ‘shooting attack’ near Tarqumiya checkpoint in the Hebron area in the southern West Bank killed three people on Sunday, Israel’s emergency medical service said. The police said they were all members of the force.
The military said several assailants may have been involved.
In the northern West Bank, an AFP photographer saw Israeli bulldozers in Jenin’s city centre, a day after a local official said soldiers had destroyed most of the streets and power and water had been cut off in the adjacent refugee camp.
At least 22 Palestinians, including 14 claimed by militant groups, have been killed by the Israeli military since the start on Wednesday of simultaneous raids across the northern West Bank.
A 20-year-old soldier was killed Saturday.
The United Nations said Wednesday that at least 637 Palestinians had been killed in the territory by Israeli troops or settlers since the Gaza war began.
Twenty-three Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during army operations over the same period, according to official figures.
