Gaza War – Army rescues six dead hostages – Vaccination starts in Gaza – Politics

Gaza/Tel Aviv (dpa) – Overshadowed by the discovery of six dead hostages in the south of the Gaza Strip, a major vaccination campaign against the polio virus has been launched in the Palestinian territory. The discovery of the bodies intensified criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli trade union umbrella organization Histadrut called for a one-day protest strike on Monday, which is also expected to affect Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv.

According to an army spokesman, the initial assessment was that the hostages were killed by Hamas shortly before the army reached them. Another army spokesman did not initially provide details about the circumstances of their deaths, but said they were killed by Hamas terrorists. Hamas, on the other hand, blamed the bombardment for the deaths of the hostages.

Violence also continued in the occupied West Bank: three police officers, two men and one woman, were killed in a suspected Palestinian attack near Hebron.

Mass vaccination due to fear of polio outbreak

After the first case of polio in 25 years was recently reported in the disputed coastal areas, around 640,000 children are to be immunized against the highly contagious polio virus in the coming days, according to the WHO. Two vaccinations are usually given four weeks apart.

The mass vaccination will be carried out by local health authorities, the UN children’s agency Unicef ​​​​and the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA, a WHO spokeswoman said. Start the war on Sunday in the central Gaza Strip.

Halima Baraka, a 39-year-old mother of four, arrived at one of the vaccination centers in Deir al-Balah in the morning. “I came here to protect my children from this disease,” she said, pointing to the poor living conditions of internally displaced people in tent camps. “The situation is miserable, we have no cleaning supplies, no healthy food for our children and there is garbage everywhere.” Diseases can easily spread among the children.

Sally Saidam from the Nuseirat refugee district also came to have four of her six children vaccinated. “We are fighting for our survival, not only because of the constant Israeli bombardments, but also because of disease, hunger and poverty.” Her message to the international community: “Enough of the death and destruction, you must help us stop this war.”

Limited breaks in fighting should enable vaccination campaigns

During the vaccination campaign, which lasted a good week and is to be expanded to other parts of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army wanted to observe temporary and localized breaks in fighting. According to his office, Netanyahu stressed that the planned breaks in fighting were not a ceasefire in the classic sense.

Shortly before the start of the vaccination campaign, the Israeli army announced the discovery of six dead hostages. Netanyahu accused Hamas of systematically torpedoing a ceasefire. “Anyone who murders hostages does not want a deal,” he said in a video message. Hamas has rejected several US proposals, while Israel has agreed to them. Critics in Israel, on the other hand, accuse Netanyahu of attempting to achieve a ceasefire for domestic political and personal reasons.

Abducted from the Nova Music Festival to the Gaza Strip

The dead hostages are four men – Hersh Goldberg-Polin (23), Alexander Lobanov (32), Almog Sarusi (27) and Ori Danino (25) – and two women – Carmel Gat (40) and Eden Jeruschalmi (24). According to the forum of relatives of the abducted, five of them were kidnapped on October 7 from the Nova music festival in the Negev desert near the Gaza Strip.

The six bodies were found in an underground tunnel in the Rafah area in the south of the embattled Gaza Strip and were transferred to Israel, the army said. “Our initial assessment is that they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them,” said Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari. A Hamas spokesman, however, said the hostages were killed in Israeli bombardment.

Another army spokesman initially did not provide any information about the exact time and circumstances of their deaths. They were killed by Hamas terrorists, but investigations are still ongoing. About a kilometer away, a 52-year-old hostage was freed alive from a tunnel on Tuesday. “We had no specific intelligence information about their whereabouts,” he said of the hostages, and spoke of “general information that hostages are being held in the area.”

“I love you, stay strong, survive!”

The parents of Goldberg-Polin, who is also a US citizen, had campaigned tirelessly for his release. Just last month, they moved participants at a US Democratic Party convention to tears with the story of their son, who had lost an arm in the kidnapping. On Thursday, she took part in a protest at the Gaza border with other hostage relatives. “Hersh, it’s Mom,” Rachel Goldberg-Polin shouted into the Gaza Strip with a megaphone. “I love you, stay strong, survive!”

Open detailed view

The German ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, wrote on X: “We are all waking up to the terrible news that six more dead hostages have been found, killed by Hamas.” Seibert named the hostage Carmel Gat. Since the Hamas attack on Israel, the German embassy has been working alongside the family for her release. When asked, the Foreign Office did not confirm whether Carmel Gat had German citizenship.

The relative of a still missing hostage told Israeli TV station Channel 13: “If we wait until we have captured the last Hamas fighter, there will be no living hostages left to save.” The discovery of the bodies is sad proof of this. “Netanyahu can make a deal to free them.” Of course it is Hamas that kidnapped and murdered the hostages, no one has any doubt about that, but the head of government can save them – but he is not doing it, he is abandoning them.”

In Tel Aviv and other places, thousands demonstrated on Saturday evening for an agreement to release those kidnapped from the Islamist Hamas.

Open detailed view

In total, terrorists from Hamas and other groups kidnapped more than 250 people from Israel into the sealed-off coastal area during the massacre on October 7. It is not known how many of the 101 hostages remaining in Gaza are still alive.

Since the war began, the number of Palestinians killed in the coastal strip has risen to more than 40,700, according to Gaza authorities. The number does not differentiate between fighters and civilians and is difficult to verify.

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