West Bank

July 26, 2024 4:36 PM

WHO sends over 1 mln polio vaccines to Gaza to protect children

The World Health Organization is sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples, its chief said on Friday. "While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an opinion piece in Britain's T...

KHAN YUNIS, GAZA - JULY 13: Palestinians inspect the area after an Israeli attack hits displaced people's camps in Al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis, Gaza on July 13, 2024. Over 70 Palestinians killed, nearly 300 injured in Israeli attack on displaced people's tents in Al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis: Gaza Health Ministry (Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images)

July 16, 2024 11:19 PM

Israeli strikes across Gaza kill at least 57, Palestinian health officials say

Israeli forces battled Hamas-led fighters in several parts of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, and Palestinian health officials said at least 57 people were killed in Israeli bombardments of southern and central areas. The Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas has accused Israel of stepping up attacks in Gaza to try to derail efforts by Arab mediators and the United States to reach a ceasefire deal. Israel says it is trying to root out Hamas fighters. In Rafah, a southern border city where Israe...

June 27, 2024 7:49 PM

Israel storms Gaza City neighbourhood, orders Palestinians to go south

Israel stormed a neighbourhood in Gaza City on Thursday, telling Palestinians as the tanks moved in that they must move south, and bombed the southern city of Rafah in what it says are the final stages of an operation against Hamas militants there. Residents of the Shejaia neighbourhood in Gaza City said they were taken by surprise by tanks rolling in and firing in the early afternoon, with drones also attacking after overnight bombing. "It sounded as if the war is restarting, a series of bomb...

SOUTHERN ISRAEL, ISRAEL - JUNE 06: Israeli soldiers stand on a tank near the border with the Gaza Strip on June 06, 2024 in Southern Israel, Israel. In recent days, Israeli forces have pressed farther into central Rafah, despite international objections to a ground offensive in Gaza's southernmost city. A US spokesperson said he doesn't believe the activity constitutes a "major ground offensive" in Rafah by Israel, which the US said it would not support.(Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)

June 8, 2024 5:57 PM

Israel rescues four hostages in Gaza; Palestinians say 50 dead in Israeli assault

The Israeli military said it rescued four hostages held since October in a raid in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday while Palestinian officials said an Israeli attack in the same area killed more than 50 people. It was not immediately clear if the hostage rescue and the deadly Israeli assault were part of the same operation but both took place in al-Nuseirat, an often embattled area in the eight-month-old war between Israel and Gaza's ruling Hamas. The Israeli military named the rescued host...

DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA - JUNE 05: Smoke rise from different locations following an attack by the Israeli army on the Maghazi refugee camp in Deir al-Balah, central part of Gaza on June 5, 2024. Reports indicate casualties. (Photo by Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)

June 6, 2024 12:30 PM

Diminished Hamas switches to full insurgent mode in Gaza

Hamas has seen about half its forces wiped out in eight months of war and is relying on hit-and-run insurgent tactics to frustrate Israel's attempts to take control of Gaza, U.S. and Israeli officials told Reuters. The enclave's ruling group has been reduced to between 9,000 and 12,000 fighters, according to three senior U.S. officials familiar with battlefield developments, down from American estimates of 20,000-25,000 before the conflict. By contrast, Israel says it has lost almost 30...

NORTHERN GAZA, GAZA - JANUARY 07: A view of the Israel-Gaza border near the Erez border crossing on January 07, 2024 in Northern Gaza. As the IDF have pressed into Gaza as part of their campaign to defeat Hamas, they have highlighted the militant group's extensive tunnel network as emblematic of the way the group embeds itself and its military activity in civilian areas. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)

May 7, 2024 5:27 PM

Israel says it has taken control of Gaza side of Rafah Crossing amid truce talks

The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had taken operational control of the Palestinian side of Gaza's southern Rafah Crossing, which borders Egypt and has been pivotal for the delivery of aid and exit of injured people in the Gaza war. The military said forces were scanning the area in the morning after launching a ground and air operation in part of eastern Rafah on Monday night, amid diplomatic efforts abroad to achieve a new truce. The Gaza Crossings Authority said in a statement that I...

April 17, 2024 6:44 PM

UN appeals for $2.8 bln for Gaza, West Bank aid

The United Nations appealed on Wednesday for $2.8 billion in funding to assist more than three million people in Gaza and the West Bank until the end of the year, to help ease food shortages and prevent looming famine in Gaza. A flash appeal published by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that sum was needed to help 3.1 million people and "reduce human suffering and prevent further loss of life." A major chunk of funding - $782.1 million - will be destined...