Gaza Strip Sees Spike in COVID-19 Cases

A view shows an almost empty street during a lockdown after Gaza reported its first cases of the coronavirus disease in Gaza City August 25, 2020. Reuters
A view shows an almost empty street during a lockdown after Gaza reported its first cases of the coronavirus disease in Gaza City August 25, 2020. Reuters
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Gaza Strip Sees Spike in COVID-19 Cases

A view shows an almost empty street during a lockdown after Gaza reported its first cases of the coronavirus disease in Gaza City August 25, 2020. Reuters
A view shows an almost empty street during a lockdown after Gaza reported its first cases of the coronavirus disease in Gaza City August 25, 2020. Reuters

Gaza's health ministry said Wednesday that more than a thousand cases of coronavirus were recorded over the previous day, the highest daily infection toll in several months.

The spike in the coastal Palestinian enclave, controlled by Hamas since 2007, stands in contrast to the slowdown in infections in Israel, which maintains a tight blockade on Gaza.

"The epidemiological situation in the Gaza Strip is dangerous," said Magdy Dahir, deputy director of primary care at the Gaza health ministry. "There is a clear increase in hospitalizations."

In Gaza, 65,500 people have been infected with Covid-19 and 610 deaths recorded since the start of the pandemic.

The Hamas-run government, which imposed a 9:00 pm (1800 GMT) curfew on Saturday to curb transmission, has ordered new restrictions on gatherings beginning Wednesday, the Gaza Hotels and Restaurants Association said.

But in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian Authority health minister Mai Al-Kaila told the official Voice of Palestine radio that the rate of increase was slowing, after a wave of infections packed local hospitals.

In the West Bank, more than 175,000 people have been infected and 2,004 deaths have been recorded, AFP reported.

The Palestinian health ministry announced that, as of Monday morning, more than 69,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza had received one vaccine jab.

By contrast, more than half of Israel's roughly 9.3 million residents have been inoculated with two Pfizer-BioNTech shots.

The latest daily increase in Israel was 442 cases, down from thousands of daily cases earlier in March.



UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says Israeli forces raided four of its schools in east Jerusalem, ordering their closure.

Israel has severed all ties with the agency, known as UNRWA, and bars it from operating in its territory. It says the agency allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, allegations denied by UN officials.

UNRWA said police entered a training center by force on Tuesday, firing tear gas and sound grenades and ordering its evacuation. It said 350 students and 30 staff were present during the raid on the Qalandiya Training Center.

It said police and city officials ordered the closure of three other schools in east Jerusalem, two of which proceeded with the school day.

Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne said police did not enter the UN buildings and that Jerusalem municipal authorities carried out the closures. He said police were deployed to protect the city workers, using “riot dispersal” means in one case where a crowd threw stones at them outside a UN facility.

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA director for the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, said the raids were an “unacceptable violation of United Nations privileges and immunities,” and a “denial of the right to education for children and trainees.”