Israeli forces appeared to have withdrawn from the Jenin and two other refugee camps in the occupied West Bank after a more-than weeklong military operation that left dozens dead and a trail of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.
Here’s the latest:
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.
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.
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