The World Health Organization said Thursday that it has a preliminary commitment for "area-specific humanitarian pauses" in Gaza fighting to allow for a polio vaccination campaign as the U.N. prepares to vaccinate an estimated 640,000 children in Gaza beginning Sunday.
Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization's senior official for the region, said the plan calls for a three-day pause in central Gaza, followed by similar pauses first in southern and then northern Gaza. A fourth day could be added if needed, he said. The Israeli military, which has previously granted “tactical pauses” in certain areas for distribution of humanitarian aid, did not immediately comment. Neither did Hamas.
The WHO confirmed on Aug. 23 that at least one baby has been paralyzed by the type 2 poliovirus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years . The WHO identified the child as Abdul-Rahman Abu Al-Jidyan, who will turn 1 on Sunday.
His mother, Nivin Abu Al-Jidyan, said she feared for her son after she was told by health officials they could do little to help him.
"He is my only baby boy. It's his right to travel and be treated; it's his right to walk, run and move like before," she told Reuters on Thursday from a tent in central Gaza. "It is unfair that he stays thrown in the tent without care or attention."
Heartbreak during abduction: Rescued hostage talks of fellow captive dying
Developments:
∎ A "communication error'' resulted in Israeli forces shooting at clearly marked vehicles of the U.N.'s food agency Tuesday, Israel told U.S. officials. The attack prompted the agency to temporarily halt deliveries. “Israel must not only take ownership for its mistakes, but also take concrete actions to ensure the IDF does not fire on U.N. personnel again,” deputy U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Robert Wood said.
∎ The United Nations Security Council met Thursday to discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza at the request of Britain and Switzerland.
∎ A majority of Israeli families evacuated from near the Lebanese border lack school supplies for their kids, and 20% don’t know which school their children will attend when classes start Sunday, according to a survey funded by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
∎ The Houthi rebels in Yemen have agreed to allow access to the Sounion, the Greek-flagged oil tanker they attacked last week in the Red Sea, igniting a fire and creating an environmental hazard. The Pentagon has said the ship, which was evacuated, may be leaking oil.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who has publicly clashed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is warning the country would likely face a "multi-front war” if it doesn't agree to the deal for a cease-fire and release of hostages currently being negotiated, Channel 12 reported.
Gallant planned to make that argument to the security cabinet Thursday, saying in a document the defense establishment believes Israel is at a “strategic crossroads” regarding the war in Gaza, according to the TV station, which said Netanyahu has seen the document.
A truce deal would not only gain the hostages' freedom but also may prompt a calming of hostilities with Lebanon's Hezbollah militants − thereby avoiding a widening of the war in Gaza − and could persuade Iran to moderate its retaliation for the July 31 killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Gallant argues. The failure to reach an agreement may further inflame regional tensions, he says.
A large-scale Israeli military operation swept across the occupied West Bank for a second day Thursday, killing an alleged terrorist operative and fueling calls from senior international officials to end the offensive amid fears the territory could become a "war extension from Gaza." The series of Israeli raids and drone strikes in the Palestinian territory are targeting "terror groups and terror cells, " Israel says.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres described Israel's military operation in several West Bank flashpoint cities as "dangerous developments" that are "fueling an already explosive situation."
Josep Borrell, the European Union's top foreign policy diplomat, said he was asking EU member states if they want to sanction some Israeli ministers who have been launching "unacceptable hate messages against the Palestinians" and proposing actions that defy international law.
“The Israeli major military operation in the occupied West Bank must not constitute the premises of a war extension from Gaza, incl. full-scale destruction,” Borrell said in a social media post.
Janez Lenarcic , the EU's commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management, said Israel's "indiscriminate use of military force and settler violence against civilians and extensive destruction of homes and infrastructure" was "in violation of international law and human rights."
Mohammed Jaber, also known as Abu Shujaa, was killed following exchanges of fire during counterterrorism operations in the West Bank's Nur Shams refugee camp outside the city of Tulkarm, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
Jaber was described as commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s wing in Nur Shams and involved in carrying out numerous terrorist attacks, including a shooting in which an Israeli civilian, Amnon Muchtar, was murdered in June, the statement said. Jaber had survived several previous attempts by Israel to kill him, according to Palestinian media.
"He was eliminated alongside four additional terrorists who hid inside a mosque," the statement said. An Israeli Border Police soldier was lightly injured and was evacuated to a hospital for treatment.
Amnesty International accused Israel of an "escalation of unlawful killings" in the West Bank. Erika Guevara Rosas, senior director for research, cited a "horrifying spike" in lethal force by Israeli forces and state-supported settler attacks in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since the war began. Israel is also using arbitrary detention to crush any form of Palestinian dissent, she said.
“These operations will result in an increase in forced displacement, destruction of critical infrastructure and measures of collective punishment, which have been key pillars of Israel’s system of apartheid against Palestinians," Guevara Rosas said.
Families of Israeli hostages being held in Gaza protested near the border Thursday, demanding a deal to free their loved ones and at one point trying to cross into the embattled Palestinian enclave. The protesters carried photographs of the captives and wore shirts marked with red paint as they gathered at Kibbutz Nirim in southern Israel, a little more than mile from the Gaza border. They shouted messages of love and support through a stack of speakers pointed across the border, hoping some of the hostages might be held close enough to hear.
A few dozen protesters rushed toward the border, only to be stopped by Israeli police who warned them they would be easy targets for armed militants.
"We are coming to get them back to Israel where they belong, where they are supposed to be," said Eyal Kalderon, whose cousin Ofer is a hostage, after his failed run.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid on Thursday challenged Netanyahu's claim that he received no warnings from Israeli intelligence ahead of the deadly Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, which ignited the war in Gaza. Lapid said he attended a meeting six weeks before the attack at which a general warned that Iran-backed militants were strengthening and there was a "weakness" in Israeli security.
"I was informed, and the intelligence material I saw was of course also seen by the prime minister," Lapid wrote on social media . "The prime minister − and here I am giving only a personal impression, so it can be disputed − seemed bored and indifferent to the issue, and did not comment on it."
Netanyahu's right-wing conservative Likud party issue a statement denying the claim.
News from the Middle East, explained. Sign up for USA TODAY's Israel-Hamas War newsletter.
Unlike Gaza, which was administered by Hamas before the war, the West Bank is partially run by the Palestinian Authority. The Israeli military has occupied parts of the West Bank since seizing the territory from Jordan in 1967 during the Six-Day War. Since then, Israel has expanded settlements in the Palestinian territory that is now home to almost 500,000 Israelis and about 3 million Palestinians.
The United Nations' highest court ruled last month that Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories are illegal and all states should cooperate to bring an end to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Contributing: Reuters
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: WHO announces pauses in Gaza fighting for polio vaccinations: Updates
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