Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 17 in Gaza Overnight

Palestinian children stand at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, August 14, 2024. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Palestinian children stand at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, August 14, 2024. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
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Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 17 in Gaza Overnight

Palestinian children stand at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, August 14, 2024. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Palestinian children stand at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, August 14, 2024. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Wednesday killed at least 17 people, including five children and their parents, Palestinian health officials said.

One strike hit a family home late Tuesday in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. It killed five children, ranging in age from 2 to 11, and their parents, according to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

An Associated Press reporter who saw the bodies arrive said they had been dismembered by the blast and that the 2-year-old had been decapitated.

In the nearby Maghazi refugee camp, a strike on a home early Wednesday killed four people and wounded others, the hospital said.

In the southern city of Khan Younis, the Health Ministry’s emergency service said first responders recovered the bodies of four men who were killed in a strike on a residential tower late Tuesday.

Two more people were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, according to the emergency service. The strike also wounded five people.



Polio Vaccination Starts in North Gaza Despite Obstacles

A medic administers a polio vaccine to a Palestinian girl at the al-Daraj neighborhood clinic in Gaza City on September 10, 2024. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A medic administers a polio vaccine to a Palestinian girl at the al-Daraj neighborhood clinic in Gaza City on September 10, 2024. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Polio Vaccination Starts in North Gaza Despite Obstacles

A medic administers a polio vaccine to a Palestinian girl at the al-Daraj neighborhood clinic in Gaza City on September 10, 2024. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A medic administers a polio vaccine to a Palestinian girl at the al-Daraj neighborhood clinic in Gaza City on September 10, 2024. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

A campaign to vaccinate a final 200,000 children in north Gaza against polio began on Tuesday although health and aid officials said the operation was complicated by access restrictions, evacuation orders and shortages of fuel.

The campaign in north Gaza, the part of the territory hardest hit by Israel's 11-month military offensive against Hamas militants, follows the vaccination of more than 446,000 Palestinian children in central and south Gaza earlier this month.

Medical staff had started administering vaccines in the north despite a dire need for fuel, among other challenges, said Dr. Moussa Abed of the primary care unit in Gaza's health ministry.
Vaccination centers are in areas that are militarily very active, difficult to reach and isolated if things go wrong, said Sam Rose, a deputy director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
"There are some nerves, but we'll have to make it work," he told Reuters by text message.
On Monday, Israel stopped a convoy that included vehicles and fuel for the vaccination campaign as well as a World Health Organization team trying to get to Gaza's Al Shifa hospital and the mission had to be aborted, the WHO's Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in a briefing.
'EXTREMELY DIFFICULT'
Israel also issued an evacuation order in north Gaza, the first in more than two weeks, that included areas that are part of humanitarian pause zones agreed upon for the polio vaccinations, according to a UN update on Monday.
"The centralization of services in the south makes it extremely difficult for us to get fuel, to get access to vaccinations, and to all other logistics," Mahmoud Shalabi of Medical Aid for Palestinians, a UK-based charity, told Reuters via a spokesperson.
"There is still no fuel for the movement of vehicles for vaccination teams in the north."
The campaign to vaccinate some 640,000 children in Gaza began on Sept. 1, following confirmation by the WHO last month that a baby had been partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
The campaign in north Gaza aims to conclude a first vaccination round, with a second set to commence after a month.