Deaths rise in Gaza and West Bank attacks, as a polio vaccine campaign begins in the Gaza Strip
JERUSALEM — The West Bank remained on edge Saturday as Israel’s military continued its large-scale military campaign, the deadliest since the Israel-Hamas war began. And in Gaza, a multi-day campaign to inoculate children against polio began as deaths from Israeli attacks continued to mount.
In the West Bank, two car bombs exploded in Gush Etzion, a bloc of Israeli settlements. Israel’s military said it killed both attackers after the explosions in a compound in Karmei Tzur and at a gas station. The military later said a soldier died Saturday during “operational activities” in Jenin and another was severely injured.
Hamas did not claim the attackers as its fighters but called it a “heroic operation.” The militant group said this month after a bombing in Tel Aviv it would continue such attacks.
Israel continued its large-scale raid — including airstrikes, gun battles and destruction of infrastructure — into urban refugee camps in the cities of Jenin and Tulkarm, in the northern West Bank. Israel’s incursion started Tuesday, causing alarm among the international community that the war might widen beyond Gaza.
Palestinians in Jenin refugee camp, a center of West Bank resistance, say repeated Israeli raids appear intended to make their city as uninhabitable as Gaza.
The medical charity Doctors Without Borders in a statement said it was alarmed by the scale and intensity of Israel’s incursion and asserted that Israeli forces have “obstructed access to health facilities and blocked — and even targeted — ambulances.”
Israel’s military on Saturday said 23 militants had been killed since the incursion, including 14 in the Jenin area.
Some people fled Jenin. Holding a baby, Oroba al Shalabi said Israeli gunfire had pelted her windows.
“We began screaming that we had small children, but they [the Israeli soldiers] didn’t respond at first,” she said. “The more we screamed, the more they shot at the house, shattering the TV and the windows around us.”
The family cowered in their kitchen until soldiers entered, she said, separating women and children from the men and searching everyone’s phones before letting her flee.
Israel has described the West Bank operation as a strategy to prevent attacks on Israeli civilians, which have increased during the war in Gaza including near settlements that the international community largely considers illegal. The Palestinian Health Ministry noted a surge in Palestinian deaths by Israeli forces, with at least 663 in the West Bank since the war began.
Meanwhile, Israel’s military late Saturday in a terse announcement said it had “located a number of bodies during combat” in Gaza. The army was trying to identify the bodies, including whether they were hostages, but said the process would take several hours. “We ask to refrain from spreading rumors,” it said. There were no further details.
The Health Ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said hospitals received 89 dead on Saturday, including 26 who died in an overnight Israeli bombardment, and 205 wounded — one of the highest daily tallies in months.
Israeli airstrikes hit a multistory building housing displaced people in and around Nuseirat, a built-up refugee camp, as well as sites in Khan Yunis and Gaza City, officials at area hospitals said. The Health Ministry announced a “repeated attack” on Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City. There were no immediate details, and the Israeli military didn’t comment.
Since the war that broke out when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and abducting around 250, Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, whose numbers do not differentiate between civilians and militants.
With the death toll in Gaza over 40,000 after 10 months of the Israel-Hamas war, the small, densely packed Palestinian territory is crammed with bodies.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent months trying to mediate a cease-fire that would see the remaining hostages released. But the talks have bogged down as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows “total victory” over Hamas and the militant group demands a lasting cease-fire and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Israelis gathered again Saturday night to rally against the government and urge a deal to bring remaining hostages home.
Israel is expected to pause some operations in Gaza on Sunday to allow health workers to administer polio vaccines to some 640,000 Palestinian children. Officials said the pause would last at least nine hours and is unrelated to ongoing cease-fire negotiations.
A small number of children in Gaza began receiving vaccines Saturday, a day before the large-scale vaccine rollout and planned pause in fighting agreed to by Israel and the World Health Organization.
“There must be a cease-fire so that the teams can reach everyone targeted by this campaign,” said Dr. Yousef Abu Al-Rish, Gaza’s deputy health minister, describing scenes of sewage running through crowded tent camps in Gaza.
Associated Press journalists saw about 10 children receiving vaccine doses at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis.
“I was terrified and waiting for the vaccination to arrive and for everyone to receive it,” said Amal Shaheen, whose daughter received a dose.
“We will vaccinate up to 10-year-olds and God willing we will be fine,” said Dr. Bassam Abu Ahmed, general coordinator of public health programs at Al Quds University.
In its first statement on the campaign, Israel said the vaccination program would run eight hours a day and continue through Sept. 9.
The vaccination push comes after the first polio case in 25 years in Gaza was discovered in August. Doctors concluded a 10-month-old had been partially paralyzed by a mutated strain of the virus after not being vaccinated due to fighting.
Healthcare workers in Gaza have been warning of the potential for a polio outbreak for months as the humanitarian crisis in the territory has deepened.
Frankel, Magdy and Metz write for the Associated Press and reported from Jerusalem, Cairo and Rabat, Morocco, respectively. Times staff contributed to this report.
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