Israel war on Gaza updates: Israel agrees limited ‘pauses’ for vaccinations

Thank you for joining us for updates on everything related to Israel’s war on Gaza.

You can read our story on the UN’s announcement that Israel has agreed to limited “humanitarian pauses” to enable critical polio vaccinations in Gaza here.

To read our story on the intensified Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank, go here.

Finally, you can find all our latest coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.

We will be closing this live page soon. Here is a recap of today’s main events:

• The UN’s health agency says Israel has agreed to at least three days of area-specific “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza to allow UN health officials to administer polio vaccinations in the territory, after the first confirmed case of polio in 25 years was discovered in the enclave, a result of the ongoing humanitarian crisis brought on by Israel’s war.
• Deadly Israeli attacks continued across Gaza, from north to south. One such attack hit a camp with displaced people near Khan Younis, killing and injuring women and children, reports the Wafa news agency. The death toll in Gaza on Thursday is at least 30.
• Israeli military soldiers attacked various sites across the occupied West Bank after launching a massive incursion in the early hours of Wednesday. Israeli forces have killed at least 18 Palestinians during the assault.
• Hezbollah has claimed at least four rocket attacks on Israeli positions along the border, but no casualties have been reported so far.
• The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, raised the prospect of levying sanctions against Israeli ministers accused of “hate messages” against Palestinians.

The head of Israel’s Association of Public Health Physicians has penned a letter to the directors of the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, asking them to ensure that Israeli captives held in Gaza are included in a campaign to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza from polio.

“Given their vulnerable position and the lack of essential vaccinations, the hostages are at severe risk,” Dr Hagai Levine wrote in a letter, referring to a pair of young brothers, one-year-old Kfir Bibas and five-year-old Ariel Bibas, who are being held in Gaza.

Levine added that many adult captives are also overdue for booster vaccination shots.

The governor of the occupied West Bank governorate has spoken to Al Jazeera Arabic about the Israeli operation in Tubas.

Here are his translated comments:

• What is happening in the West Bank is a major massacre.
• The occupation forces isolated the Far’a camp from the city of Tubas.
• There is a presence of occupation forces and military aircraft and the siege of the governorate continues.
• The occupation has destroyed all the sewage networks in the Far’a camp.
• The occupation blocked the road to ambulances and attacked medical crews.

An Israeli strike on a residential building in central Gaza has killed nine members of the same family, as Israel’s punishing assault on the Strip continues to decimate families.

“These are Israel’s goals!” Osama al-Taweel told reporters next to a hospital morgue, where five dead babies wrapped in bloodied shrouds were among the victims.

The Associated Press reported that medics at the al-Awda Hospital said that a pregnant woman was also killed in the strike, along with her unborn child.

Al-Awda Hospital is struggling to accommodate dozens of patients. Many of them are seeking assistance after being forced to leave the larger Al-Aqsa Hospital earlier this week after Israeli authorities placed that facility under evacuation orders.

In Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, Israeli bombardment has devastated entire neighbourhoods, reducing them to rubble. Residents, repeatedly displaced, have returned to find their homes and infrastructure destroyed.

The destruction has left the area uninhabitable, with families left homeless and nowhere safe to go.

Watch our video report below:

The family has pitched a tent outside of their home, which was taken by a group of Israeli settlers backed by armed forces on July 31.

The message the Kisiyas are trying to send: They won’t give up.

The family are Palestinian Christians and even have Israeli citizenship, but that did not stop the illegal seizure of their land in the occupied West Bank.

“They thought we would get tired. It didn’t even cross their mind that we’d set up this tent. They thought that they’d keep doing what they’d been doing for 20 years,” Alice Kisiya told Al Jazeera.

“We didn’t get tired, because we’d rather stay in a tent on our land rather than abandon it and leave it to the settlers.”

Settlers took over a Palestinian Christian family’s home, so the family set up a tent outside and refused to leave. pic.twitter.com/jx1LN9ZaBQ

— AJ+ (@ajplus) August 29, 2024

Abdel-Rahman Abu el-Jedian has stopped crawling, paralysed by the effects of polio – a disease that much of the world has eradicated, but that has returned to Gaza as a result of the humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s war.

The boy’s mother says he was energetic, but that has “reversed”.

“Suddenly he stopped crawling, stopped moving, stopped standing up and stopped sitting,” Nevine Abu el-Jedian said.

Sitting in a tent, she pleads for help as her family fans the boy, hoping he will get better.

Hamas slammed the Palestinian Authority (PA) for what it said was the arrest of fighters in the occupied West Bank, as Israel undertakes a massive assault on the territory.

The group said in a statement that it condemns the arrest of fighters in the Nablus governorate, including former prisoners held in Israeli jails. It also denounced “defamation campaigns” that it said have included spreading rumours and fabricated accusations.

“We call on the PA to immediately cease these practices, to restrain its Security Forces from targeting our resistance fighters, to release all political detainees from its prisons, and to direct these forces to unite in the true field of confrontation to defend our people and our land.”

China’s representative to the UN Security Council has given his comments on the latest Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank.

Here is a translated summary of what he said:

• “In the occupied West Bank Israel continues to violate international law and [UN Security] council resolutions.”
• “[Israel’s] settlements continue to grow and it ramps up searches, arrests and raids against Palestinians.”
• “The Israeli military launched a large-scale military operation targeting Tulkarem, Jenin and Tubas among others in the West Bank … China strongly condemns this.”
• “Senior Israeli officials in the government recently spoke of using the same approach in the [occupied] West Bank as they have employed in operations in Gaza … We are shocked and seriously concerned by such extreme remarks that risk global condemnation. Gaza has now been turned into hell on earth.”
• “We must never allow the same humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza to happen in the West Bank, which will turn the West Bank into another hell on earth.”

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has released the footage below of the aftermath of the latest Israeli air raids on displaced people in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

🚨A video shows the work of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) crews today, as they transported three martyrs and 11 injured individuals after Israeli occupation forces targeted tents of displaced people in Al-Amal neighborhood park in #KhanYunis.
📷Filmed by volunteer:… pic.twitter.com/YFIfxagPvc

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) August 29, 2024

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has welcomed the “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza to help administer the polio vaccine.

“But the only lasting medicine is peace. The only way to fully protect all the children of Gaza is a ceasefire,” he added.

A #polio vaccination campaign in #Gaza is planned to begin on 1 September.

We welcome the commitment to humanitarian pauses in specific areas, and suspension of evacuation orders for the implementation of the campaign.

But the only lasting medicine is peace. The only way to… pic.twitter.com/J52cbVTAoe

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) August 29, 2024

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that several people have been killed and wounded following an Israeli shelling at the al-Baraka roundabout in the central Gaza area.

Israeli attacks have killed dozens of people in the past 24 hours.

The UK-based Palestine Action group of activists has criticised the reported arrest of a member for online posts, as well as a raid on the address of one of 10 previously arrested members, and the issuing of charges against another for supporting a “terrorist” organisation.

“This is what you call a police state – one which is trying desperately to protect the interests of a foreign genocidal entity,” the group said in a post on social media.

In protest at the war on Gaza, the group has been focusing on disrupting weapons manufacturers in the UK that supply arms to Israel.

In one day, counter-terrorism police arrest actionist Sarah Wilkinson for posts online, re-raid one of the #Filton10's address and charge actionist Richard Barnard for supporting a proscribed organisation.

This is what you call a police state – one which is trying desperately…

— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) August 29, 2024

That’s the Israeli defence, according to the deputy US envoy to the UN.

Robert Wood told a UN Security Council meeting that an initial review had found the shots were fired at a WFP vehicle after a “communication error”. The vehicle was clearly marked as belonging to the UN, and the shots were fired at the windows, directly at what would have been the people inside the car.

“We have urged them to immediately rectify the issues within their system,” Wood said. “Israel must not only take ownership for its mistakes, but also take concrete actions to ensure the [Israeli military] does not fire on UN personnel again.”

But it’s not the first time Israel has fired upon humanitarian workers. In early April, seven aid workers from the US-based group World Central Kitchen were killed after the vehicles they were travelling in were targeted by an Israeli air raid.

Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, says Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories is the “biggest threat” to the security of the region while accusing unnamed Israeli officials of spreading “disinformation” about his country and regional security.

“Radicals who celebrate the killing of children, use starvation as [a] weapon, bomb hospitals and schools, attack UN humanitarian missions, violate the sanctity of Muslim and Christian Holy sites in occupied Jerusalem and deny the right of the Palestinian people to life have no credibility,” he posted on X.

“Numerous Security Council resolutions, ICJ [International Court of Justice] rulings and testimonies by international organization[s] are more credible than the claims of an Israeli official who promotes collective punishment against the Palestinian people.”

Earlier, Katz, Safadi’s Israeli counterpart, called for a security fence to be dug along the Israel-Jordan border to stop what he said was the smuggling of Iranian weapons and also said Western countries need to “strengthen” Jordan so it can defend its borders.

The lies continue. Israeli officials who blatantly enable war crimes against the Palestinian people, try to justify the cold blooded massacring of innocent Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and violate every tenant of international law are now attempting in vain to divert…

— Ayman Safadi (@AymanHsafadi) August 29, 2024

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has justified the largest Israeli incursions into the occupied West Bank in two decades by accusing Iran of smuggling weapons into the territory.

Katz claimed in a post on X that Tehran is smuggling arms through Syria to Jordan and then to the West Bank, particularly to Palestinian refugee camps.

“The Palestinian Authority is unable to confront this threat, which also endangers its existence,” the diplomat said in the latest Israeli threat to dismantle the body.

“Offensively, Israel must act decisively against the terror infrastructure being built on the ground, as we have already begun. Defensively, a security fence along the Israel-Jordan border must be constructed quickly to prevent an influx of advanced Iranian weapons.”

He also called for Western countries to “strengthen” Jordan so the kingdom can defend its borders.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) was established by the Oslo Accords in the 1990s. It was designed to pave the way to a Palestinian state. But Israel has refused to agree to a two-state solution and has increased the construction of illegal Israeli settlements throughout the West Bank, simultaneously making the possibility of a Palestinian state less realistic and weakening the PA.

The PA is unpopular among Palestinians, partly because of the security coordination it performs with Israel, which results in it arresting Palestinians.

Mukesh Kapila, a doctor who was formerly a United Nations staffer, says the three-day pause agreed to by Israel is unlikely to be long enough to administer the polio vaccine to all those in need in Gaza.

“Let’s not underestimate the complex logistics here. Almost certainly, three days are not going to be enough,” Kapila, professor emeritus at the University of Manchester, told Al Jazeera.

“I don’t know whether we can build on this and that they can do some other immunisations as well … but of course, that might be a prayer and a wish too far.”

Kapila said it was “extremely important” to win the trust of the people in Gaza for them to “bring their children forward” to get vaccinated.

“Many of them will be afraid. Many of them will not trust what’s going on because they’ve already been bombed despite being assured of their safety,” he added.

“That’s why I hope very much that people are not fixated with the three-day period, but they allow a decent amount of time to get the job done.”

Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has released footage that shows the home of a Palestinian family of 17 people, including 11 children, being demolished by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.

Home demolitions are a frequent practice carried out against Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank, particularly those living in Area C, which is under full Israeli control, and even Palestinians living in Israel.

Israeli authorities often officially say that the structures built do not have the proper permits, but Palestinians and human rights groups say the permits are rarely granted to Palestinians as illegal Israeli settlements expand across the occupied territory.

Umm al-Kheir, South Hebron hills. Israel demolishes home of family of 17, including 11 minors as part of the apartheid regime's efforts to expel Palestinian communities in the west bank.
These demolitions are carried out by Israeli forces, using tools made by int'l companies pic.twitter.com/fB9ncFt1Ip

— B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) August 29, 2024