Afp, Europa Press, Xinhua, Ap and Sputnik
The newspaper La Jornada
Monday, September 2, 2024, p. 28
Gaza. Following an Israeli bombardment of the Safad school in Gaza City that left 11 dead and dozens injured, Palestinian health authorities and United Nations agencies yesterday began a polio vaccination campaign throughout the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army reported in a statement that “fighter planes have selectively attacked and under the direction of Shin Bet military intelligence and the Southern Command terrorists Hamas operating out of the Safad school in Gaza City.
The Israeli military said it killed 47 fighters and wounded 94 in its latest round of attacks.
The number of Palestinians killed has risen to 40,738 and the number of injured to 94,154 since the war began on October 7, 2023, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.
Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said during the first phase of inoculation against poliomyelitis that Parties to the conflict must respect temporary pauses by area, for the sake of children throughout the regionand it also remains a lasting ceasefire is pending.
Immunize more than 600 thousand children
The campaign aims to immunize some 640,000 children, according to authorities, who plan to reach out to children living in the central Gaza Strip by Wednesday.
Hospitals in Deir Balah and Nuseirat confirmed that the campaign had started as normal. Israel said the program would continue until September 9 and would last eight hours daily.
Israel and Hamas have agreed to cease hostilities in Gaza in order to implement a polio vaccination campaign led by the World Health Organization (WHO), Rik Peeperkorn, director of the WHO’s regional office, said on Thursday.
In the reoccupied West Bank, the Israel Defense Forces launched an offensive against a house where an individual was operating, whom they blamed for an attack in the Hebron area that left three Israeli policemen dead.
According to a report, the suspected terrorist turned out to be Muhannad Easud, a 31-year-old West Bank resident.