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ShareTULKAREM/GAZA: The death toll climbed Thursday as the Zionist entity pressed a large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank for a second day, despite UN concerns it is “fueling an already explosive situation”. The operation was launched as violence raged on in the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by war.
Meanwhile, the Zionist military and Hamas have agreed to three separate, zoned three-day pauses in fighting in the Gaza Strip to allow for the vaccination of some 640,000 children against polio, a senior WHO official said on Thursday. The vaccination campaign is due to start on Sunday, said Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s senior official for the region.
He said the campaign would start in central Gaza with a three-day pause in fighting, then move to southern Gaza, where there would be another three-day pause, followed by northern Gaza. Peeperkorn added that there was an agreement to extend the humanitarian pause in each zone to a fourth day if needed.
The WHO confirmed on Aug 23 that at least one baby has been paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
The Zionist entity began coordinated raids in the northern West Bank cities of Jenin, Tubas and Tulkarem early on Wednesday. Columns of Zionist armored vehicles backed by troops and warplanes were sent in before soldiers encircled refugee camps in Tubas and Tulkarem, as well as Jenin, and exchanged fire with Palestinian fighters. The army said it killed seven fighters on Thursday, bringing to 16 the death toll reported by the Zionist military since the launch of the West Bank operation.
The Palestinian health ministry also reported that 16 Palestinians had been killed since the beginning of the operation. A military statement said five fighters were killed Thursday at a mosque in the Tulkarem refugee camp, including Muhammad Jaber, also known as Abu Shujaa. Palestinian group Islamic Jihad said he was its commander in the nearby Nur Shams refugee camp. It added that two other fighters were killed in Jenin on Thursday.
The violence has caused significant destruction, especially in Tulkarem, whose governor described the raids as “unprecedented” and a “dangerous signal”. AFPTV footage showed bulldozers ripping up the asphalt from streets in the city. Widespread damage was reported to infrastructure. Witnesses said Zionist forces had withdrawn from Al-Farra refugee camp in Tubas where several Palestinians were killed on Wednesday.
An AFP journalist said clashes were taking place in Jenin, where a drone was seen flying overhead and the streets were empty. Another said Zionist soldiers were operating in Tulkarem. The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said at least 45 people had been arrested in the West Bank since the start of the Zionist operation.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres, in a statement, called for an “immediate cessation of these operations”. He condemned the use of air strikes on civilian targets and “the loss of lives, including of children”. “These dangerous developments are fueling an already explosive situation in the occupied West Bank and further undermining the Palestinian Authority,” the statement said.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday cut short a visit to Saudi Arabia to address the crisis, while Jordan’s King Abdullah II appealed for a ceasefire in Gaza to stop the spread of violence. Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the operation in the West Bank, describing it as a “continuation of the genocide in the Gaza Strip”.
The United Nations on Wednesday said at least 637 Palestinians had been killed in the West Bank by Zionist troops or settlers since Oct 7. Violence also raged in Gaza, where the Zionist military on Thursday said it “eliminated dozens” of fighters during the past day in close-quarters combat and air strikes. The Zionist military campaign has killed at least 40,602 people in Gaza, mostly women and children. The war has devastated Gaza and triggered a humanitarian crisis.
“It’s just catastrophic,” Louise Wateridge, a spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said of the effects of the war and repeated evacuation orders from the Zionist military. “What we’re seeing now is families, mothers, children dragging their belongings,” she said on social media platform X. “There’s very limited access to any kind of vehicles for this kind of displacement now, and people just don’t know where to go.”
As emergency services crumble under the strain of the war, Gaza’s civil defense agency said ambulance and fire services had been severely degraded, with most “hit by (Zionist) strikes”. In the latest bloodshed, the agency said Zionist shelling killed five displaced people in a tent east of Khan Yunis. In central Gaza, some Palestinians returned to parts of Deir el-Balah after the military had amended a previous evacuation order. Mohamed Abu Thuria told AFP he had “found massive destruction everywhere”. Another displaced Gazans back in Deir al-Balah, Ibrahim al-Tabaan, said: “We lost everything.”– Agencies
