Israeli forces appeared to have withdrawn from the Jenin and two other refugee camps in the occupied West Bank after a more-than weeklong military operation that left dozens dead and a trail of destruction.
Israel says the large-scale raids in the territory were aimed at dismantling militant groups and preventing attacks. Palestinians fear a widening of the war in Gaza.
Senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of deliberately stalling cease-fire negotiations, and urged the United States and the international community to put more pressure on Israel.
The United Nations says the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “beyond catastrophic,” with more than 1 million Palestinians not receiving any food rations in August and a 35% drop in people getting daily cooked meals. Health workers resumed vaccinating children against polio in the southern Gaza Strip early Friday for the second phase of a massive immunization campaign.
The war began after Hamas launched a wide-scale attack into Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people. Israel’s campaign in response has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and fighters in its toll.
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Parents of prominent hostage whose body was recovered from Gaza hope Hamas propaganda video is a wake-up call
JERUSALEM — The parents of a prominent Israeli American hostage whose body was recovered from Gaza said they want a Hamas propaganda video of him to serve as a “wake-up call to the world” to free the remaining hostages.
“No other family should go through what our family (and the families of the other recently executed hostages ) have endured,” wrote Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin, the parents of 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
In the undated video taken before he was killed and circulated Thursday by Hamas, Goldberg-Polin speaks under duress, saying he survived in Gaza with no medical care and little food or water, criticizing the Israel government for bombarding Gaza rather than agreeing to a deal, and calling on United States President Joe Biden to end the war.
He addresses his family, prominent faces in the fight to free the captives, directly: “I know you’re doing everything you can and you’re out in the streets trying to bring me home now. I need you to stay strong for me, keep on fighting and hopefully I believe I will be home soon.”
Similar videos, condemned by Israel as psychological warfare, were released by Hamas throughout the week after six hostage bodies were recovered from a Gaza tunnel. The Israeli military says they were killed by their Hamas captors as Israeli soldiers drew near. Hamas has threatened to kill other hostages if Israel tries to rescue them.
There are around 70 hostages in Gaza who have not yet been confirmed dead by the Israeli government, out of roughly 100.
Health workers vaccinate kids in Gaza en masse to avoid a polio outbreak
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Health workers resumed vaccinating children against polio in the southern Gaza Strip early Friday for the second phase of a massive immunization campaign.
Children lined up early in the morning outside a United Nations health center in Khan Younis to receive the vaccine, which was being administered by local health care crews in coordination with UNICEF and the World Health Organization.
The first phase started Sunday in hospitals and medical locations in the central Gaza Strip. UNICEF said that, by Wednesday, 189,000 children were vaccinated. The final phase focusing on the north will finish Sept. 9. In all, the WHO hopes to be able to vaccinate 640,000 Palestinian children in Gaza against polio.
The large-scale operation was undertaken as an urgent measure meant to prevent a polio outbreak after health officials confirmed the first polio case in 25 years — in a 10-month-old boy who is now paralyzed in the leg.
The WHO reached an agreement with Israel for limited pauses in the fighting to allow for the vaccination campaign to take place.
Most people who have polio do not experience symptoms, and those who do usually recover in a week or so. But there is no cure, and when polio causes paralysis it is usually permanent. If the paralysis affects breathing muscles, the disease can be fatal.
Israeli forces appear to withdraw from a West Bank camp after a major military operation
JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank — Israeli forces appeared Friday to have withdrawn from the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, after a more-than weeklong military operation that has left dozens dead and a trail of destruction.
In the quiet morning Friday, Jenin residents took advantage of the lull to rummage through the rubble of destroyed buildings and take stock of the damage. Twisted rebar protruded from the concrete of collapsed buildings, and walls still standing were pockmarked by bullets and shrapnel.
During the operation, Israeli military officials said they were targeting militants in Jenin, Tulkarem and the Al-Faraa refugee camp curb recent attacks against Israeli civilians they say have become more sophisticated and deadly.
Troops were pulled out of the Tulkarem camp by Friday morning and had left Al-Faraa earlier, but in a statement the Israeli military suggested the operation was not yet over.
“Israeli security forces are continuing to act in order to achieve the objectives of the counterterrorism operation,” the military said in a statement.
Germany’s foreign minister presses for a cease-fire during her visit to Israel
TEL AVIV, Israel — Germany’s foreign minister says the Israel-Hamas war can’t be resolved with a purely military approach and pressed for a cease-fire in a meeting Friday with her Israeli counterpart.
Speaking Friday after meeting in Israel with Israel Katz, Annalena Baerbock pointed to the killing of six hostages by Hamas the previous week as Israeli troops appeared to be moving to rescue them.
“We saw last weekend that purely military pressure endangers the lives of the hostages,” she said, adding that the fate of the remaining hostages should take priority.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists on a demand that has emerged as a major sticking point in talks: continued Israeli control of the Philadelphi corridor, a narrow band along Gaza’s border with Egypt where Israel contends Hamas smuggles weapons into Gaza. Egypt and Hamas deny it.
Baerbock said she understands Israel’s security concerns, and specifically those about the corridor — “but solutions can be found for this together” and the European Union is prepared to help if it can.