Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in southern Gaza where they apparently died shortly before Israeli troops reached them, the military said on Sunday. Meanwhile, clashes continue between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank as polio vaccination campaign has begun.
The bodies of Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino had been found underground in the city of Rafah and returned to Israel, according to military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari at a briefing.
The heart of an entire nation is shattered to pieces. I embrace their families with all my heart, and apologise for failing to bring them home safely, said President Isaac Herzog, whose post is largely ceremonial.
However, there was no immediate reaction from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The prime minister is under pressure at home and abroad to reach a ceasefire deal that includes the release of the remaining hostages. Earlier this week, a bitter dispute erupted between the prime minister and the defence minister at a meeting of Israel’s security cabinet on Thursday night over the terms of a hostage release and ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu responded to a question that keeping the Isreal Defence Forces in the Philadelphi corridor was crucial to the state.
The six recovered bodies were among 250 hostages taken in the Hamas assassination through southern Israel on 7 October that sparked the Gaza war. The attack killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures. A senior Hamas official, Izzat El-Reshiq, said Israel, by refusing to sign the ceasefire agreement, was responsible for the deaths.
Сlashes in West Bank continue
In the meantime, the Israeli Defence Forces have been conducting raids in the hot city of Jenin since Wednesday, one of the largest military actions in the West Bank in recent months. Drones and helicopters circled overhead and the sounds of sporadic gunfire heard in the town. The Israeli military said on Saturday that one soldier killed in the fighting in the West Bank.
Israel says the operation aims to prevent Iranian-backed militant groups from attacking its citizens, but the international community has demanded an end to it. Israel, for its part, says it will step up defensive measures as well as offensive actions like the Jenin operation, according to Israeli army chief General Herzi Halevi.
Late Friday night, Israeli forces said two men fell to their deaths in separate incidents near Gush Etzion, a major West Bank settlement south of Jerusalem. The military assessed that both incidents constituted attempted attacks on Israelis.
- In the first incident, a car exploded at a petrol station in what the army said was an attempted car bombing. The military informed that a man was shot dead after he got out of the car and attempted to attack soldiers.
- In the second incident, a man was killed after the military said a vehicle tried to ram a security guard and enter the Karmei Tzur settlement. The vehicle chased by security forces, crashed and the explosive device in it detonated, the military reported.
Hamas said in its statement that the resistance in the West Bank is “a clear message that resistance will remain striking, prolonged and sustained as long as the brutal occupation’s aggression and targeting of our people and land continue.”
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 20 Palestinians have been killed since Israeli military operations started on 28 August in the West Bank cities of Tulkarem, Jenin and Tubas. Palestinians estimate that at least 660 Palestinian militants and civilians have been killed in the West Bank since the Hamas attack on Israel last October that sparked the war in the Gaza Strip. Some were killed by Israeli troops and some by Jewish settlers, who have frequently attacked Palestinian communities.
Israel alleges that Iran has supplied arms and support to militant groups in the West Bank, which has been under Israeli occupation since the 1967 Middle East war.
Polio vaccine campaign begins in Gaza
The Health Ministry said on Saturday the campaign to vaccinate children in Gaza against polio and prevent the spread of the virus has begun. The problem of spreading the virus is extremely high, with 89 deaths admitted to hospitals on Saturday alone. The campaign comes after the first case of polio in 25 years discovered last month.
Doctors concluded that a 10-month-old baby became partially paralysed by a mutated strain of the virus after he failed to be vaccinated because of the fighting.
Health officials in Gaza had warned of the possibility of a polio outbreak for months, but the humanitarian crisis in the territory has worsened during the war. Israel, for its part, said the vaccination campaign would continue until September 9, lasting eight hours a day. This will allow health workers to administer vaccines with the aim of reaching some 640,000 Palestinian children, AP News said.
Yousef Abu Al-Rish, Gaza’s deputy health minister, describing scenes of sewage flowing through overcrowded tent camps, said polio is spread through faeces and called for the agreement to be enforced: “There must be a cease-fire so that the teams can reach everyone targeted by this campaign.”
