The death toll from an Israeli strike on a humanitarian zone in Gaza has gone up to 19
Israeli strikes strike gaza deaths: The first polio vaccine campaign in a humanitarian zone since Israel was banned during the January 22nd Gaza conflict
The vaccination drive, launched after doctors discovered the first polio case in the Palestinian enclave in 25 years, aims to vaccinate 640,000 children during a war that has destroyed the health care system.
The staff and convoy later came back to a UN base, so it was not clear if the campaign would take place Tuesday in northern Gaza.
“The convoy was stopped at gun point just after the Wadi Gaza checkpoint with threats to detain UN staff,” he wrote on the social platform X. The UN armored vehicles were damaged by bulldozers.
The main United Nations agency providing aid to Palestinians said Israeli troops stopped a convoy taking part in a polio vaccination campaign for more than eight hours on Monday, despite it coordinating with the military. The staffers held by UNRWA were taking part in a campaign in the northern part of Gaza.
Humanitarian groups have struggled to provide aid because of law and order problems in Gaza and Israeli restrictions during the war. The international authority on the severity of hunger crises said in June that the territory is at high risk of famine.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have spent much of this year trying to broker an agreement for a cease-fire and the release of the hostages, but the talks have repeatedly bogged down as Israel and Hamas have accused each other of making new and unacceptable demands.
The Israeli-Hamas Operation in Muwasi: The First Time Israel has Striked a Humanetically Defined Zone
Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began. It doesn’t distinguish between fighters and civilians.
Despite being designated a humanitarian zone, aid groups have struggled to provide even basic services in Muwasi and Israel has occasionally struck targets there.
It was among the deadliest strikes yet in Muwasi, a sprawl of crowded tent camps along the Gaza coast that Israel designated as a humanitarian zone for hundreds of thousands of civilians to seek shelter from the Israel-Hamas war.
Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians throughout the war, which was ignited by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. It blames Hamas for their deaths because the militants often operate in residential areas and are known to position tunnels, rocket launchers and other infrastructure near homes, schools and mosques.
The Israeli military said that it had hit Hamas in a control center. It said that it used various means to avoid civilian casualties.
An Associated Press camera operator saw three large craters at the scene, where first responders and displaced people were sifting through the sand and rubble with garden tools and their bare hands by the light of mobile phones. They pulled body parts from the sand, including what appeared to be a human leg.
Civil Defense recovered 40 bodies from the strike but were still looking for other people. It said entire families were killed in their tents.
After making sure her children were safe, she looked around to find her husband, Ahmad. After searching, she saw him still alive stuck under the rubble. Sha’er used her bare hands to dig him out.
“Nowhere is safe in Gaza,” said 52-year old Maha al-Sha’er, whose tent was destroyed in Tuesday’s strike. She said her family went to bed at 11 p.m. on Monday and were startled awake by loud booms. Sha’er said she was disoriented from the dust and explosions.
This isn’t the first time Muwasi has been struck. The Israeli military said they targeted and killed Mohammed Deif, leader of the terrorist group Hamas, in a strike in July. Hamas denied that Deif was killed.
There was a lot of chaos after the strikes. Dust and rubble covered tents and cars. Personal belongings like blankets, a deflated basketball, kitchen supplies and clothing were strewn across the camp. The parents were looking for their children and there was an explosion in the middle of the camp.
First responders told NPR it took them hours to pull dead bodies from beneath the rubble, and the health ministry said dozens were still stuck, which would contribute to a higher casualty toll.
Hamadan Kills Near a Humanitarian Zone in the Stripe of Zerel’ne: Israeli Airstrike, Israeli Firefights, and Palestinians
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip, and TEL AVIV, Israel — An Israeli airstrike early Tuesday morning on an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in southern Gaza killed 19 Palestinians and wounded 60 others, according to Gaza’s ministry of health.
