Israel’s war on Gaza live: Israel kills 12 in Khan Younis, Deir el-Balah
- Israeli attacks have killed 12 Palestinians since this morning in Gaza, as it continues to expand its ground operation in Khan Younis and Deir el-Balah.
- The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says it will begin vaccinating Gaza’s children for polio at the end of the month, as fears of an outbreak of the disease grow.
WHO director says Palestinian infant with polio has partial paralysis
The director-general of the World Health Organization says that a Palestinian infant who has contracted polio, the first case in Gaza in a quarter-century, has developed partial paralysis.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X on Friday that the 10-month-old developed paralysis in the lower left leg and is in stable condition.
“I am gravely concerned,” he said.
Samples from the infected child were tested by the WHO and confirmed to be linked to the variant found in Gaza’s wastewater.
Given the high risk of its spread, the Geneva-based WHO is working with the Palestinian Health Ministry and UNICEF to launch two rounds of vaccinations at the end of August and September.
After being eradicated in Gaza 25 years ago, polio vaccinations plunged after the war began on October 7, and the territory has become a breeding ground for the virus.
Seven killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon: Health Ministry
The Lebanese Ministry of Health says that seven people, including a child, were killed in Israeli raids on the towns of Tayr Harfa, Aita al-Jabal, Mays al-Jabal and Aitaroun.
An Israeli fighter jet also targeted the town of Yaroun.
Hezbollah later mourned three fighters who died in the Tayr Harfa raid.
Netanyahu’s stance on Philadelphi Corridor shows no desire for ceasefire: Hamas
Hamas official Osama Badran says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand to keep Israeli troops at the Philadelphi Corridor – a strip of land along Gaza’s border with Egypt – shows he is unwilling to reach a final ceasefire deal.
Speaking to AFP news agency, Badran reiterated that Hamas would accept “nothing less than the withdrawal of occupation forces, Philadelphi included”.
This is in line with the original US- and UN-backed ceasefire plan presented by US President Joe Biden back in May, he said.
Currently, Israeli negotiators are in Cairo with mediators trying to hammer out the details of a deal, which the US and Israel said they have agreed to a “bridging proposal” for.
However, Hamas has not accepted the “bridging proposal”, which it says violates earlier agreed-upon terms, and is not taking part in this round of talks.
Over a dozen injured, 1 killed in Israeli strike on tents sheltering displaced Palestinians: PRCS
The Palestine Red Crescent (PRCS) has posted a video on X of its emergency service crews operating in the al-Mawasi area of al-Qarara, west of Khan Younis, after Israeli forces targeted tents sheltering displaced people.
It says that its crews transported 17 injured people and the body of one person killed in the attack.
Israel’s military claims strike on Hamas ‘command centre’
Israel’s military says it carried out an air strike on a Hamas “command centre” in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood earlier today.
The military claimed the facility was located within a building that previously served as a school, accusing Hamas of storing weapons there.
It did not note any casualties from the strike.
Earlier, we reported an Israeli air strike on a gathering east of Gaza City’s Zeitoun that killed one person. We also reported fierce clashes in the area between Israeli forces and fighters of both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Lufthansa to resume flights to Amman, Erbil from August 27
Germany’s Lufthansa Group will restart flights to Jordan’s capital and the Iraqi city, making use of a northern corridor in Iraqi airspace for the Erbil trips, it said.
The group, which includes carriers Swiss International Air Lines, Austrian Airlines and Eurowings, extended its suspension of flights to Tel Aviv and Tehran up to and including September 2, the airline said.
Flights to Beirut are suspended through September 30, it added.
Israel’s presence in a post-war Gaza ‘legally wrong’: UN expert
Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, says that “imagining Israel’s continued presence in “post-war” Gaza (where the scars of its genocide are indelible)” is “absolutely legally wrong”.
In a post on X, she cites the recent International Court of Justice ruling that said Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful and should come to an end “as rapidly as possible”.
