By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
SvennoJ on 20 August 2024
Edit Thread

Israeli attacks target water treatment facilities in Gaza

For Palestinians sheltering in Gaza’s ruins, survival is not only a matter of avoiding Israeli military strikes. Israel’s latest forced displacement from central and southern Gaza has cut even more people off from vital water sources.


Israeli forces blow up buildings near Rafah

The Israeli military is blowing up residential buildings west of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent is reporting.

An estimated 60 percent of residential buildings have been damaged by Israel’s war on Gaza as of May, according to data from the UN humanitarian agency, OCHA.


UN says rare fuel delivery to Gaza City ‘far from enough’

A UN convoy has reached Gaza City, delivering “critical fuel to help keep essential services like bakeries and health facilities running”, the UN said in a post on X.

But the post went on to say the delivery was “far from enough,” and that a “ceasefire and sustained humanitarian access are needed to save lives”.

The UN also shared photographs showing destroyed buildings and piles of waste in the city in the north of the Gaza Strip, which faced intense Israeli bombardment from October last year.

Critical services in Gaza have had to rely on fuel to run generators, after Israel cut off all electricity to the Strip in October.

Ten killed in strikes on homes in Bureij, Rafah

Israel’s military has waged several early morning attacks across Gaza, killing and injuring numerous Palestinians, according to local news agency Wafa.

They include:

  • Bombardment of a family home in Bureij camp, killing six people.
  • Strike on a home in Rafah city, killing four people.
  • Tank fire on the outskirts of al-Mawasi area, near Khan Younis, injuring five people.
  • Shelling in Gaza City neighbourhoods of Tal al-Halwa, Sabra and Zeitoun.
  • Shelling in the northwestern part of Nuseirat camp and eastern Deir el-Balah.


Army confirms it retrieved bodies of six Israeli captives

A military statement says the bodies have been recovered in an operation in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. The captives have been named as Alex Dancyg, 75, Yagev Buchshtav, 35, Chaim Peri, 79, Yoram Metzger, 80, Nadav Popplewell, 51, and Avraham Munder, 78.

The overnight operation was jointly carried out by the army and Shin Bet, the Israeli intelligence agency, the statement said. After an identification procedure was carried out, the families of the deceased were informed, the army added.


Haniyeh’s guards among those killed in Shati camp

The Israeli military is stepping up its strikes despite ceasefire talks.

Over the past 24 hours, there has been a surge in air strikes in the north of the Strip. One attack in the Shati refugee camp killed seven personal guards of the late Ismail Haniyeh. An overnight attack on a car in northern Gaza killed at least four more people, according to medical sources.

The situation is also increasingly grim in central Gaza. The military destroyed a family house in the Bureij refugee camp without any warning, killing six Palestinians.

In the south, the Israeli army has jolted towards al-Mawasi in Rafah, opening fire on residents and displaced families. Attacks have also continued in Khan Younis, where the army is still operating.

Bombardment is overwhelming the entire Strip, with no respite since the early hours of this morning.


Gaza Health Ministry says still waiting for polio vaccines

The ministry says in a statement that it is still awaiting vaccines for a UN-backed mass-vaccination campaign after Gaza recorded its first polio case last week.

“In order to reach every child, we need safe conditions, and this requires a ceasefire during the campaign,” the statement reads, echoing comments from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“It is impossible to conduct a polio vaccination campaign with war raging all over,” Guterres told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York on August 16.

The UN chief added that the organisation is poised to launch a polio vaccine campaign in Gaza for children under the age of 10, but he said the “challenges are grave”.

Humanitarian organisations struggling to get goods into Gaza

Arwa Damon, founder of the charity Inara, says humanitarian organisations in Gaza are struggling to get supplies. She tells Al Jazeera from Deir el-Balah that even when supplies arrive in Gaza, it’s almost impossible to transport them to where they are needed the most.

Damon said the situation is so “dire” that Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital is running out of bandages.

“And what that has meant is that a 13-year-old child who has 50 to 60 percent burns on his body was not able to get sufficient bandage changes for wound cleaning, which then resulted in him having blood poisoning and exhibiting signs of early sepsis,” Damon said. “He’s in the ICU.”

At Nasser Hospital, she said, they’re missing many basics, including sufficient paper on which to write patient conditions.

“All of us here are scraping around trying to find whatever we can, from fresh vegetables to hygiene products, and begin to distribute that out to the people, but the numbers we are able to reach – it’s almost embarrassing in the face of how vast the need is right now,” she said.