Israeli air strikes kill dozens of Palestinians in Gaza

Amos Hochstein, senior adviser to US President Joe Biden, to arrive in Israel on Monday, White House says

Damaged buildings in the Gaza Strip, where dozens of Palestinians were killed by Israeli attacks on Saturday. Reuters

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Dozens of Palestinians were killed by Israeli air attacks and artillery fire on Gaza on Saturday, official news agency Wafa reported.

Five people were killed and others injured in air strikes near a school sheltering displaced people west of Gaza city, Wafa said. Warplanes bombed the Ard Al Shanti area near Dar Al Arqam school, the agency said, and two people were also killed in central Gaza, after warplanes bombed a house in Al Maghazi camp.

Rescuers recovered the bodies of 10 people, including four children and three women, after warplanes bombed a house in the Tuffah neighbourhood to the east of Gaza city, Wafa said, adding that people were trapped under the rubble.

Three people were killed and others injured in a strike on a tent for displaced people in the Al Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. A woman was killed in an attack on a house east of Shujaiya in Gaza city. Others were injured in nearby houses. In central Gaza, Israeli warplanes and artillery bombed areas in the two camps of Nuseirat and Al Bureij, according to Wafa.

Three people were also killed and others injured in artillery shelling in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza. Medics said they took one body and four injured to Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza city after an Israeli helicopter attack on the Tel Al Hawa neighbourhood, west of the city, on Friday night.

Gaza's civil defence said the Israeli army bombed a tent of displaced people in the Al Attar area of the city of Khan Younis on Friday night, killing and injuring a number of people. Medical sources said the bodies of a man and his son were recovered from Rafah and were taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

Israeli soldiers at the entrance of a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip. AP Photo

Meanwhile, the Israeli army took reporters on Friday to tunnels uncovered by troops in southern Gaza, including the entrance to the location where the bodies of six Israeli hostages were recovered on September 1.

The military did not allow reporters into the tunnel, in the Tel Al Sultan area of Rafah, for what they claimed were security reasons. But it has released video showing a cramped passage it said was about 20 metres beneath the ground.

The Israeli military has said six hostages were killed by Hamas on the night of August 29 and their bodies were recovered by troops about two days later. Hamas said they were killed during the Israeli operation.

West Bank raids

In the occupied West Bank, clashes began after Israeli forces stormed Al Ain camp, west of Nablus, on Saturday morning, local sources said. A man from the camp was detained.

The Israeli forces entered the town of Barqa in north-western Nablus and raided a number of houses, Wafa reported.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, on Friday confirmed that one of its workers was killed by Israeli forces in Al Faraa camp, in the northern West Bank.

This is the first time in more than 10 years that an UNRWA staff member has been killed in the West Bank.

The agency said in a statement that Sufyan Jawwad was shot and killed on the roof of his home by a sniper during an Israeli military operation on Thursday morning.

Mr Jawwad, who had five children, worked as a sanitation labourer at the camp, the agency said.

Amos Hochstein, senior adviser to US President Joe Biden, is set to arrive in Israel on Monday for talks focused on Lebanon, the White House said. During his visit, Mr Hochstein is expected to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and other security officials.

Anti-Semitism accusations

EU foreign affairs minister Josep Borrell has responded to accusations by Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz of anti-Semitism and being involved in “hate campaigns against Israel”, saying that “accusing those who disagree with a government’s position of anti-Semitism makes no sense”.

“There have unfortunately been examples in history of what it means to be anti-Semitic, and I don’t think we should play with big words that have had a tragic dimension in history,” Mr Borrell said.

Mr Borrell on Friday attended a high-level meeting of several Muslim and European countries, hosted by Spain, on ways to end the Gaza war, which was criticised by Mr Katz.

“Instead of pushing for the EU to join the sanctions on Iran, Borrell supports establishing a Palestinian terror state controlled by Iran and the axis of evil against Israel, moderate Arab states, and Europe,” Mr Katz said on X. “This is Borrell's legacy – anti-Semitism and hatred towards Israel,” he said.

In a joint statement after the meeting, the countries reiterated their commitment to a two-state solution as the only way to lasting peace and security.

“The international community must take active steps to implement the two-state solution, including universal recognition of the State of Palestine, and its admission as a full member of the United Nations,” they said.

Polio vaccination campaign

More than 560,000 children under the age of 10 have been vaccinated against polio during the first round of an emergency vaccination campaign in Gaza which was completed on Thursday, the director general of the World Health Organisation said on Friday.

“This is a massive success amid a tragic daily reality of life across the Gaza Strip,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media platform X.

“We admire all the health teams who conducted this complex operation,” he said, also thanking the families for their trust and co-operation.

After the discovery of the first confirmed polio case in the enclave in 25 years, a vaccination effort began on September 1, targeting at least 90 per cent of children under 10, aided by humanitarian pauses in fighting.

The first round of the campaign, which initially brought vaccines to children in central Gaza, then the south, and finally to the hardest-to-reach north of the territory, wrapped up on Thursday.

WHO had initially said it aimed to vaccinate about 640,000 children, but Rik Peeperkorn, the organisation's representative for the Palestinian territories, said on Friday that this was probably an overestimate of the target population. A campaign to provide a second dose in Gaza is due to begin in about four weeks.

Israel began its military campaign in Gaza on October 7 after Hamas led a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. The war has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, and reduced much of the territory to rubble.