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JERUSALEM (AP) – A campaign to vaccinate Children in Gaza against polio and stop the spread of the virus has begun, the Health Ministry said on Saturday, as Palestinians within the Hamas-ruled enclave and the occupied West Bank suffered the results of the Israeli military offensive.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said in a temporary statement late Saturday that it had “found a number of bodies during the fighting in Gaza.” The army was attempting to discover the bodies, including whether or not they were hostages, but said the method would take several hours. “We ask that you do not spread rumors,” it said. No further details got.
A small number of youngsters in Gaza received a vaccine dose a day before the large-scale vaccination campaign and limited pauses in fighting agreed by Israel and the United Nations World Health Organization. Associated Press journalists saw about 10 children receiving a dose at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
“There must be a ceasefire so that teams can reach everyone affected by this campaign,” said Dr. Yousef Abu Al-Rish, Gaza's deputy health minister, describing scenes of sewage flowing through crowded tent camps. Polio is transmitted through feces.
But the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a press release: “Israel will only allow a humanitarian corridor” and “areas will be set up where the vaccines can be administered safely for a few hours.”
Israel said the vaccination program will last until September 9 and can run for eight hours a day. It will allow medical examiners to Administer vaccines with the aim of reaching about 640,000 Palestinian children.
The vaccination campaign comes after Gaza's first case of polio in 25 years was reported. discovered this month. The doctors concluded 10 months old was partially paralyzed by a mutated strain of the virus after failing to get vaccinated resulting from fighting. Most individuals who contract the disease don’t show symptoms, and those that do contract it often get well inside about per week. But there isn’t any cure.
“I was terrified and waiting for the vaccine to come and everyone to get it,” said Amal Shaheen, whose daughter received a dose on Saturday.
Health employees in Gaza have been warning for months of a possible polio outbreak. The humanitarian crisis within the territory has worsened in the course of the war that erupted after Hamas-led militants entered southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and abducting about 250. Israel's retaliatory offensive has greater than 40,000 Palestinians killedsaid the Gaza Health Ministry, which didn’t provide any information on the variety of militants.
The ministry said 89 dead were admitted to hospitals on Saturday, including 26 killed in an overnight Israeli bombardment, and 205 injured – certainly one of the very best every day figures in months.
Meanwhile, parts of the West Bank remained in turmoil because the Israeli military large-scale military campaignthe deadliest because the war between Israel and Hamas began.
Two automobile bombs exploded in Gush Etzion, a bloc of Israeli settlements. The Israeli military killed each attackers after the explosions occurred at a posh in Karmei Tzur and at a gas station, the Israeli military said. The military later said one soldier died during “operational activities” in Jenin on Saturday, without giving further details, and one other was seriously wounded.
Hamas didn’t discover the attackers as its fighters, but called it a “heroic operation.” The militant group said earlier this month after a Bomb attack in Tel Aviv It would proceed such attacks.
Israel continued its large-scale attack on refugee camps within the cities of Jenin and Tulkarm, within the northern West Bank. The Israeli invasion began on Tuesday, sparking fears within the international community that the war could spread beyond Gaza.
The medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders expressed alarm in a press release concerning the scale and intensity of the Israeli invasion, claiming that Israeli forces had “obstructed access to health facilities and blocked ambulances – and even deliberately attacked them.”
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 23 militants had been killed because the incursion, including 14 within the Jenin area.
Some people have fled Jenin. Oroba al-Shalabi, holding a baby, said her windows were hit by Israeli gunfire.
“We started shouting that we had small children, but they (the Israeli soldiers) did not react at first. The more we shouted, the more violently they shot at the house, smashing the television and windows around us,” she said.
The family huddled of their kitchen until soldiers entered, she said. They separated women and kids from the lads and searched everyone's phones before letting them escape.
Israel has described the operation within the West Bank as a method to forestall attacks on Israeli civilians, which have increased in the course of the war in Gaza, including near settlements that the international community largely considers it illegalThe Palestinian Health Ministry has reported a rise within the variety of Palestinian deaths by the hands of Israeli forces. At least 663 people have died within the West Bank because the war began.
In central Gaza, Israeli airstrikes hit a multi-story constructing housing displaced people in and around Nuseirat, a refugee camp, in Khan Younis and in Gaza City, officials on the region's hospitals said. The Health Ministry said there was a “repeated attack” on al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City. There were no immediate details, and the Israeli military didn’t comment.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have been trying for months to broker a ceasefire that will allow the discharge of the remaining hostages. But the talks kept getting stuck Netanyahu promised “total victory” over Hamas and the militant group called for a everlasting ceasefire and the whole withdrawal of Israeli forces from the realm.
“Why are they still in Gaza?” chanted the gang.
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