Attack near hospital comes as vaccinations end
The targeted side of the residential home is only less than a mile [1.6km] away from the southern gate of the Al-Aqsa Hospital. We can see the cloud of dark smoke rising in the sky.
It’s not a coincidence that this is the exact same timing as yesterday’s attack. And there is fear and concern right now that as soon as the vaccination schedule ends for the day, the Israeli military resumes right away.
As we understand it, 3pm [12:00 GMT] is the end of … the pauses in the fighting, and what we’re seeing from yesterday and today is that as soon as it ends, the Israeli military resumes right away.
The attacks started with this air attack on this residential building that’s only less than a mile away from the southern gate of the hospital. At least six critically injured people have arrived at the hospital here.
Polio vaccine programme going ‘quite well’, WHO says
Hamid Jafari, the WHO’s director of polio eradication for the Eastern Mediterranean region, says the vaccination programme in Gaza is “going quite well”.
“We have already vaccinated more children than we had estimated were in this middle zone of Gaza. This is the first phase of the campaign. By this evening, we will make an assessment whether there are still children who need to be vaccinated … because we are now finding more children in this area than we had estimated,” Jafari told Al Jazeera.
“So we will likely need tomorrow as well to continue vaccination,” he said.
He added that on Thursday a polio vaccination campaign will start in the southern Gaza Strip, which is where “the bulk of the children are – 300,040 estimated children are in the south”.
“Once that is completed, again about four days, after that, the north will start, which again has an estimated population of target children under 10 years of age of 150,000,” Jafari said.
Pauses in fighting a ‘rare ray of hope’, says UN chief
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has described the pauses in fighting in central Gaza as health workers deliver polio vaccines as a “rare ray of hope and humanity in the cascade of horror”.
“If the parties can act to protect children from a deadly virus … surely they can and must act to protect children and all innocents from the horrors of war,” his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
The high risk of it spreading beyond Gaza is likely the only reason Israel is allowing the vaccination campaign.
Israel isn't pausing bombing children at all...
Five wounded children brought to Al-Aqsa Hospital after Israeli air strike
Initial injuries arrived at the hospital, and a civilian vehicle arrived with two children in bad condition. We could see them soaked in blood and dust, and really terrible scenes to look at here at the hospital.
Within a span of a few minutes, the ambulance came back with more seriously injured individuals from the bombed house that were already covered in dust and blood, and one of them was in really bad shape.
We believe that one child is in the operating theatre right now as we were told by one of the doctors that there is a high possibility that they’ll lose one of their limbs as bones were shredded completely by the explosions.
Just to remind you, the kind of bombs used by the Israeli military in these attacks are quite lethal. They’re packed with nails, with shrapnel, with little pieces of metal that, when they explode, fly at high speed and cut through the flesh. They cause severe bleeding.
So far, five children have arrived at the hospital.
Israeli army confirms attack on Numaa College in Gaza City
The Israeli military says the air force has carried out a strike on Numaa College in Gaza City after accusing Hamas fighters of using the building as a “command and control centre”. The army said Numaa College was used to direct attacks on soldiers and Israel.
It added that steps to mitigate the risk of harming civilians were taken through the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence.
