Agencies
Brussels/Palestinian
territories/Tel Aviv
The European Union (EU) warned against the quick spread of polio in the Gaza Strip, on Tuesday.
The warning came in a statement by High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell who said, “The quick spread of polio threatens all children in Gaza, already weakened by displacement, deprivation and malnourishment.”
Borrell urged for an immediate three-day humanitarian ceasefire to enable the World Health Organization and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund to carry out vaccination campaigns.
Israeli attacks have killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in the 320 days since October 7. This includes almost 17,000 children. That’s 2.6 percent of all children in Gaza who are now dead.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said the Israeli Ministry of Heritage has allocated 2 million shekels (about $543,000) to support far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound.
This reflects “an official Israeli policy aimed at intensifying the Judaisation of Al-Aqsa and altering its status quo, which threatens to ignite tensions in the West Bank”, it said in a statement.
Ben-Gvir, who has personally stormed the compound with armed security and extremist settlers on multiple occasions, expressed his support for building a synagogue in the Holy Muslim site on Monday.
The settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the occupied Jerusalem on Tuesday, under the protection of the Israeli occupation police.
The settlers stormed the mosque in groups, carried out provocative tours, and performed Talmudic rituals in its courtyards, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
The occupation police also turned the Old City of occupied Jerusalem into a military barracks, and imposed restrictions on the entry of worshipers.
Gaza’s civil defence has accused Israel of systematically displacing civilians through violent means, including firing guns as people flee newly declared red zones.
The policy, the civil defence said, has killed or wounded hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach safety and blocked emergency responders from reaching victims.
Meanwhile, Louise Wateridge, senior communications officer at UNRWA, said Israel’s latest evacuation orders in Gaza have forced UN staff over the past 48 hours to move and “reconfigure operations”.
She told Al Jazeera from az-Zawayda in Gaza that UN operations have not stopped despite the huge challenges created by the Israeli forces imposing “new rules”.
“It is nothing short of a struggle to provide what people need here because we don’t have enough aid. We don’t have enough supplies coming in; we don’t have enough access to distribute to people,” Wateridge said.
“There are so many people dying in Gaza from things that can be treated, people can be saved, but we do not have the means to do this for them. We do not have the means to operate to our best ability.”
The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya has said that Israel wants to “destroy the health sector” by preventing fuel from reaching the Strip.
Giving an update on the situation at the hospital, he said most people who arrive wounded by Israeli attacks die due to poor conditions and lack of medical services.
He also said Gaza is facing a “germ war” and demanded the institution of a vaccination programme.
Earlier this month, the Health Ministry in Gaza reported that it detected the first polio case in the besieged enclave after United Nations officials called for a pause in the fighting to enable a vaccination campaign for children against the virus.
Meanwhile, Israel said its special forces have recovered an Israeli captive from a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip in “a complex rescue operation”, as the war, now in its 11th month, shows no signs of abating.
Kaid Farhan al-Kadi, a 52-year-old Bedouin, was abducted by the Palestinian group Hamas during its October 7 attack on Israel, the military said in a statement on Tuesday.
The military said al-Kadi is in “a stable medical condition” and has been transferred to a hospital for medical checks.
In the northern West Bank five people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Tuesday.
The Israeli army announced that a control room belonging to Palestinian militants in the refugee camp of Nur Shams had been bombed. According to Palestinian reports, a drone fired several shells at a group of people during the incident late on Monday evening.
Separately, an Israeli Arab has reportedly been shot dead after Israeli settlers entered a Palestinian village in the southern West Bank.
There were conflicting reports about the exact sequence of events leading to the fatal incident. Palestinian media reported that the approximately 40-year-old man was shot by settlers. According to Israeli media, however, it was soldiers who allegedly fired the shots. Four Palestinians were injured, according to the reports.
The situation in the West Bank has worsened significantly since the start of the Gaza war following the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023.
Since then, 624 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military operations, confrontations or their own attacks in the West Bank, according to the Ministry of Health. Violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians also increased during this period.
