The success of the Gaza talks is hanging in the balance. And the UN is asking for at least a few days without war in order to implement a vaccination campaign against polio.
Despite all efforts to achieve a ceasefire and a polio crisis, fighting in the Gaza Strip continues. The Israeli army says it has killed dozens of opponents in close combat since Thursday. In the fighting in the town of Khan Yunis in the south of the coastal strip and in the area of Deir al-Balah further north, terrorist infrastructure was also destroyed.
Israel’s air force also intervened in the fighting and, among other things, fired on positions from which rockets were fired at Israel. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that several civilians had been killed as a result of Israeli attacks. In northern Israel, too, there was renewed mutual fire between the army and the Hezbollah militia, which is allied with Hamas. All of the information could not initially be independently verified.
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA lamented the consequences of the recurring Israeli evacuation orders for civilians in the Gaza Strip. Since the war began last October, 90 percent of the 2.2 million inhabitants of the coastal strip have been displaced, often several times, said the UN humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian territories, Muhannad Hadi.
People are forced to flee again and again, often under fire and with the few belongings they can carry with them. The area for internally displaced people is getting smaller and smaller. “People are denied access to essential services such as health, shelter, water and humanitarian aid,” wrote Hadi.
In Cairo, meanwhile, mediation efforts for a ceasefire are to continue. The main point of contention is reportedly Hamas’s demand for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects this. UN representatives demanded that at least a ceasefire be made possible for polio vaccinations for hundreds of thousands of children in the war zone.
The Gaza war was triggered by the worst massacre in Israel’s history, with more than 1,200 deaths, carried out by terrorists from the Islamist Hamas and other extremist groups on October 7.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
