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Israeli attacks on Saturday (8/31) killed at least 48 people in the Gaza Strip. Clashes between Israel and Hamas continued in the central and southern areas of the territory ahead of the planned start of a polio vaccination campaign.
The UN will begin vaccinating 640,000 children in the territory against polio, relying on an eight-hour daily lull in fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in certain areas of the besieged territory.
Gaza’s deputy health minister, Yousef Abu Al-Reesh, said vaccination teams would try to reach as many areas as possible to ensure wide coverage, but he said only a comprehensive ceasefire could guarantee enough children would be reached.
“If the international community really wants this campaign to succeed, then they should call for a ceasefire, given that this virus is not stopping, and can spread anywhere,” he told reporters at Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, as reported by the Guardian, Sunday (1/9).
On Saturday (8/31), as more than 2,000 medical workers and community members prepared to begin the campaign, medical officials in Nuseirat, one of eight historic refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, said a separate Israeli strike killed at least 19 people, including nine members of a family from the same refugee camp.
“More than 30 others were killed in a series of attacks in other areas of Gaza,” medics said.
Read also: Netanyahu at odds with Israeli negotiators over ceasefire
Residents and militant sources said fighters from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other groups were fighting Israeli forces in Gaza’s northern Zeitoun neighborhood, where tanks have been operating for days, and in Rafah, near the border with Egypt.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it was continuing operations in the central and southern Gaza Strip. It said soldiers killed militants and dismantled military infrastructure in Gaza City, while they found weapons and killed gunmen in Tel Al-Sultan in western Rafah.
In Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, families returned to their neighborhoods after the army ended a 22-day offensive it said was aimed at preventing Hamas from regrouping. Footage showed large swathes of the area flattened and buildings and infrastructure destroyed.
Medics said they recovered at least nine bodies from the area where the troops were operating. (I-2)
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