Nearly two-thirds of Gaza buildings damaged in war: UN
Nearly two-thirds of Gaza buildings damaged in war: UN/node/2561511/middle-east
Nearly two-thirds of Gaza buildings damaged in war: UN
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A view of destroyed buildings in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, as seen from southern Israel August 1, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Distressed Palestinian family members are comforted during a funeral at the Al-Zawaida Cemetery in the central Gaza Strip. (AFP)
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A man walks past the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli bombardment, near the al-Maghazi Palestinian refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip on August 2, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (AFP)
Nearly two-thirds of Gaza buildings damaged in war: UN
UNOSAT said the total debris in the Gaza Strip generated by the conflict amounts to approximately 41.95 million metric tonnes. The figure is up 83 percent from the nearly 23 million tonnes estimated on Jan. 7
Updated 02 August 2024
AFP
GENEVA: Nearly two-thirds of the buildings in the Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed since the Gaza war began in October, the UN said Friday.
“UNOSAT’s latest damage building assessment, based on satellite imagery ... reveals that 151,265 structures have been affected in the Gaza Strip,” the UN Satellite Center said.
“Of these, 30 percent were destroyed, 12 percent severely damaged, 36 percent moderately damaged, and 20 percent possibly damaged, representing approximately 63 percent of the total structures in the region.”
The assessment compared imagery from May 2023 onward with images from July 6 this year.
“The impact on civilian infrastructure is evident, with thousands of homes and essential facilities being damaged,” the agency said.
UNOSAT said the total debris in the Gaza Strip generated by the conflict amounts to approximately 41.95 million metric tonnes. The figure is up 83 percent from the nearly 23 million tonnes estimated on Jan. 7.
The conflict has resulted in 14 times more debris than the combined total from all previous conflicts in the Palestinian territory since 2008, UNOSAT said.
The agency estimated that 114 kg of debris was generated for each square meter in the Gaza Strip.
Geneva-based UNOSAT says its satellite imagery-based analysis helps the humanitarian community assess the extent of conflict-related damage and helps shape emergency relief efforts.
Health official says polio vaccine campaign begins in war-torn Gaza
Health ministry officials in the enclave along with the UN and NGOs “are starting today the polio vaccination campaign in the central region”
After beginning in central Gaza, vaccines are set to be administered in southern Gaza and then in northern Gaza
Updated 01 September 2024
AFP
GAZA: A health official said a polio vaccination campaign had begun in Gaza on Saturday after the war-torn territory recorded its first case of the disease in a quarter of a century.
Local health officials along with the UN and NGOs “are starting today the polio vaccination campaign in the central region,” Moussa Abed, director of primary health care at the Gaza health ministry, told AFP.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to a series of three-day “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza to facilitate vaccinations, though officials had earlier said the campaign was expected to start on Sunday.
After beginning in central Gaza, vaccines are set to be administered in southern Gaza and then in northern Gaza.
The campaign, which involves two doses, aims to cover more than 640,000 children under 10.
Michael Ryan, WHO deputy director-general, told the UN Security Council this week that 1.26 million doses of the oral vaccine had been delivered in Gaza, with another 400,000 still to arrive
The Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry said earlier this month that tests in Jordan had confirmed polio in an unvaccinated 10-month-old baby from central Gaza.
Poliovirus is highly infectious, and most often spread through sewage and contaminated water — an increasingly common problem in Gaza as the Israel-Hamas war drags on.
The disease mainly affects children under the age of five. It can cause deformities and paralysis, and is potentially fatal.
Bakr Deeb told AFP on Saturday that he brought his three children — all under 10 — to a vaccination point despite some initial doubts about its safety.
“I was hesitant at first and very afraid of the safety of this vaccination,” he said.
“After the assurances of its safety, and with all the families going to the vaccination points, I decided to go with my children as well, to protect them.”
Abed, the health official, stressed on Saturday that the vaccine was “100 percent safe.”
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 which resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,691 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
Incessant Israeli bombardment has also caused a major humanitarian crisis and devastated the health system.
Israel police says 3 West Bank attack victims were police officers
Israel’s medical emergency service earlier had announced the death of the three, two men and a woman
The attack took place east of Tarqumiya checkpoint near the city of Hebron
Updated 23 min 27 sec ago
AFP
TARQUMYA: Israeli police said the three people killed in Sunday’s shooting attack in the occupied West Bank were members of the police force.
“Three members of the police force were killed this morning in a shooting attack,” Ouzi Levy, chief of the Israeli police in the West Bank, told reporters at the scene of the attack near the Tarqumiya checkpoint near the city of Hebron.
Israel’s medical emergency service, Magen David Adom, earlier had announced the death of the three, two men and a woman.
“This was a very severe attack. We saw a vehicle with bullet marks on a mound beside the road,” the emergency service said in a statement quoting two of its paramedics who had rushed to the scene.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir also visited the scene of the attack and called for more checkpoints be set up in the area.
“Right to life (of Israelis) is more important than freedom of movement of PA (Palestinian Authority) residents,” he told journalists.
“Instead of freeing terrorists, shoot them in the head.”
Sunday’s shooting comes as Israeli forces pressed on with a widespread operation in the West Bank since Wednesday.
Explosions and gunfire were heard in Jenin city on Sunday, an AFP photographer reported, as Israeli forces continued to operate there.
At least 22 Palestinians have been killed since simultaneous raids were launched on Wednesday across the northern West Bank, including 14 militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups.
Since Friday, soldiers have concentrated operations on Jenin and its refugee camp, a densely-populated community which has long been bastions of Palestinian armed groups.
Violence across the West Bank has soared since the war in Gaza began after the October 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel.
Around 650 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers since October 7, according to the United Nations.
During the same period at least 23 Israelis have been killed in the territory in either Palestinian attacks during security operations by Israeli forces, according to official Israeli figures.
The initiative aims to support African countries in addressing and mitigating the outbreak of the virus
Updated 01 September 2024
Arab News
ABU DHABI: The UAE has dispatched several aircraft carrying mpox vaccines to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, South Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, and Cameroon, Emirates News Agency WAM reported.
The initiative aims to support efforts of the five African countries in addressing and mitigating the outbreak of the virus, which the World Health Organization (WHO) had declared as a global health emergency.
In a statement, the UAE Minister of State, Sheikh Shakhboot bin Nahyan Al Nahyan, said the support “affirms the country’s steadfast commitment to assisting other nations during crises and disasters.”
He added, “The initiative reflects the UAE’s commitment to humanitarian values as part of its ongoing commitment to extend a helping hand and assist impacted communities across the world.”
Earlier, the UAE allocated $5 million fund for polio vaccinations in Gaza as the enclave recorded its first case in 25 years amid the ongoing war that obstructed major humanitarian efforts.
The vaccination campaign, which began on Saturday, is carried out by the WHO to immunize over 640,000 Gazan children under the age of 10.
Supporting humanitarian efforts in war-stricken Sudan and South Sudan, the UAE has signed a $7 million agreement with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The agreement allocates $6 million for UNICEF’s operations in Sudan and $1 million for its activities in South Sudan.
Israel recovers bodies of six hostages in Gaza, including Goldberg-Polin
Hamas official blames Israel for death of hostages
Around 100 hostages remain in captivity, dozens of whom the Israeli military says are dead
Updated 01 September 2024
Reuters
JERUSALEM: Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in southern Gaza where they were apparently killed not long before Israeli troops reached them, the military said on Sunday.
“According to our initial estimation, they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists a short time before we reached them,” military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters in a briefing.
The bodies of Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino had been found underground in the city of Rafah and returned to Israel, he said.
“The heart of an entire nation is shattered to pieces,” said President Isaac Herzog, whose post is largely ceremonial. “I embrace their families with all my heart, and apologize for failing to bring them home safely.”
There was no immediate comment from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under pressure at home and abroad to reach a ceasefire deal that includes the release of remaining hostages.
US President Joe Biden, who has closely followed the fate of the hostages seized on Oct. 7, said the six included Israeli American Goldberg-Polin.
“I am devastated and outraged,” Biden said in a statement issued by the White House.
Senior Hamas official Izzat El-Reshiq said that Israel, in its refusal to sign a ceasefire deal, was responsible for the deaths.
Days earlier, hostage Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a member of the Bedouin community in southern Israel, was rescued about a kilometer away, Israel’s Hagari said.
After Alkadi was located, troops were told to be cautious because other hostages might be in the area, but there had been no precise information on their location, he said.
This combination of pictures created on September 01, 2024 shows undated portraits provided on September 1, 2024, by The Hostages Families Forum Headquarters, representing families of Israeli hostages held by Palestinian militants in Gaza, showing hostages (clockwork from top-L) Almog Sarusi, Alex Lubnov, Carmel Gat, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi and Hersh Goldberg-Polin at unspecified locations. (AFP)
The six recovered bodies were from about 250 hostages taken in Hamas’ killing spree through southern Israel on Oct. 7 that sparked the war in Gaza. About 1,200 people were killed in the assault, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, at least 40,691 Palestinians have been killed and 94,060 injured in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, the enclave’s health ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
Sunday’s news was likely to spur further protests by Israelis demanding a hostage release deal.
The Hostage Families Forum called on Netanyahu to take responsibility and explain what was holding up an agreement.
“They were all murdered in the last few days, after surviving almost 11 months of abuse, torture, and starvation in Hamas captivity. The delay in signing the deal has led to their deaths and those of many other hostages,” it said.
Goldberg-Polin, captured at a music festival near Gaza, appeared in a video released by Hamas in late April.
“He had just turned 23. He planned to travel the world,” Biden said. His parents, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, “have been courageous, wise, and steadfast, even as they have endured the unimaginable,” he said.
“They have been relentless and irrepressible champions of their son and of all the hostages held in unconscionable conditions. I admire them and grieve with them more deeply than words can express,” the president said.
Biden vowed that “Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. And we will keep working around the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages.”
Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement, “I strongly condemn Hamas’ continued brutality, and so must the entire world.” Harris, the Democratic candidate running to succeed Biden, said she and he would never waver in their commitment to free the Americans and all those held hostage in Gaza.
Earlier, speaking to reporters in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Biden said he was “still optimistic” about a ceasefire deal to stop the conflict.
“I think we’re on the verge of having an agreement,” he said. “It’s time this war ended.”
Biden added that “people are continuing to meet.”
“We think we can close the deal, they’ve all said they agree on the principles.”
Iraq seeks US investment in gas as new projects target energy independence
Abdel-Ghani also said Iraq will launch a new gas investment project by the end of the year at the Al-Faihaa oil field in southern Iraq
Updated 01 September 2024
Reuters
BAGHDAD: Iraq plans to offer 10 gas exploration blocks to US companies during an upcoming visit by Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani to the United States, he announced on Saturday.
The move is part of Baghdad’s efforts to attract US investment into its energy sector, following previous licensing rounds where Chinese firms secured the majority of available fields.
The 10 gas blocks, left unclaimed following six licensing, rounds, will be presented in a new bidding process, Iraqi state media said, and comes as Iraq seeks to bolster its domestic gas production.
Abdel-Ghani also said Iraq will launch a new gas investment project by the end of the year at the Al-Faihaa oil field in southern Iraq. The project, with a capacity of 125 million standard cubic feet (mscf), is a key component of Iraq’s strategy to enhance its energy infrastructure.
The latest initiative follows recent agreements to develop 13 oil and gas blocks, aimed at increasing Iraq’s crude and gas output to supply power plants, which currently rely heavily on Iranian gas imports.
