Israeli strikes kill 12 Palestinians in Gaza as polio vaccination resumes

CAIRO (Reuters): Israeli military strikes killed at least 12 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Friday, medics said, as health officials resumed vaccination of tens of thousands more children in the enclave against polio.

In Nuseirat, one of the territory’s eight historic refugee camps, an Israeli strike killed two women and two children, while eight other people were killed in two other strikes in Gaza City, the medics said.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces battled Hamas in the Zeitoun suburb of Gaza City, where residents said tanks have been operating for over a week, in eastern Khan Younis, and in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, where residents said Israeli forces blew up several houses.

Eleven months into the war, diplomacy has so far failed to conclude a ceasefire deal to end the conflict and bring the release of Israeli and foreign hostages held in Gaza as well as many Palestinians jailed in Israel.

The two warring sides continued to blame one another for failing efforts by mediators, including Qatar, Egypt and the United States. The US is preparing to present a new ceasefire proposal to hammer out differences, but prospects of a breakthrough remain dim as gaps between the sides remain large.

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that it was incumbent on both Israel and Hamas to say yes on remaining issues to reach a Gaza ceasefire deal.

Nearly 90% of the Gaza ceasefire deal is agreed, but critical issues remain where there are gaps, including the issue of the so-called Philadelphi corridor on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip bordering Egypt, Blinken said at a press briefing. Israel said it wouldn’t leave the corridor and Hamas says an agreement isn’t possible unless they did.

Meanwhile, residents of Khan Younis and displaced families from Rafah, continued to crowd medical facilities, bringing their children to get the polio vaccines. The campaign was launched after the discovery of a case of a one-year-old baby who was partially paralyzed.

Polio campaign to move to northern Gaza

This was the first known case of the disease in Gaza – one of the world’s most densely populated places - in 25 years. It re-emerged as Gaza’s health system has virtually collapsed and many hospitals have been knocked out of action due to the war.

The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, said at least 160,000 children received the drops in southern Gaza areas on Thursday where medical staffers began the second stage of the campaign, benefiting from an Israeli and Hamas agreement on limited pauses in the fighting.

“Since 1 September UNRWA & partners have vaccinated nearly 355,000 children against polio in Gaza middle & southern areas,” UNRWA said in a post on X.

“In the next few days, we’ll continue rolling out the polio vaccination campaign aiming to reach around 640,000 children under 10 with this critical vaccine,” it added.

The campaign will move on Sunday to the northern Gaza Strip, which has been the focus of the major Israeli military offensive in the past 11 months. According to the World Health Organization, a second round of vaccination would be required four weeks after the first round.

Israel’s subsequent assault on the enclave has since killed over 40,800 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, while also displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.