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While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared inflexible on Monday regarding a possible agreement on the release of the hostages, the war between the Israeli army and the Islamist movement Hamas continued in the Palestinian enclave on Tuesday, September 3.
The attack carried out by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to a count by Agence France-Presse, based on official Israeli data. Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 97 are still being held hostage in Gaza, including 33 declared dead by the army.
In response, Israel launched a major offensive in the Gaza Strip that has so far left at least 40,819 dead, according to the latest report released Tuesday by the health ministry of the Gaza Strip, administered by Hamas. The territory’s 2.4 million inhabitants are facing a humanitarian and health disaster.
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• Agreement on the release of hostages: Benjamin Netanyahu affirms that he “will not yield to pressure”
After publicly asking “sorry for not bringing back alive” The six hostages found dead on Sunday in the Gaza Strip, Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to make them pay “a very high price” to the Islamist movement and hammered home that it “will not give in to pressure.” “No one is more committed than me to the release of the hostages. (…) Now we must exert maximum pressure on Hamas”Who “must make concessions”, he added.
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In recent days, demonstrations bringing together thousands of people have taken place in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, accompanied by a strike in several cities to demand an agreement allowing the release of the dozens of hostages still held in Gaza.
But Mr Netanyahu says he wants to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed. He has reaffirmed the need for Israel to maintain control of a corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, the Philadelphia Corridor. Hamas is demanding Israeli withdrawal from this corridor, which Israel seized last May, and ultimately Israel’s total withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
• UN calls for investigation after ‘summary execution’ of six Israeli hostages
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for an investigation on Tuesday. “independent, impartial and transparent” on the“summary execution” of six Israeli hostages. “We are horrified by reports that Palestinian armed groups have summarily executed six Israeli hostages, which would constitute a war crime.”wrote Volker Türk on X.
The Israeli army announced on Sunday the discovery in a tunnel in the Gaza Strip of the bodies of six hostages killed according to it “point blank” by Hamas, based in particular on the autopsy. Hamas’ chief negotiator, Khalil Al-Hayya, had said on Al-Jazeera channel on Sunday that a “bombing” Israeli forces were behind their deaths.
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Two videos were published on Monday by the movement, considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union, which show the six Israeli hostages, alive, giving their names to the camera. The Hostage Families Forum denounced these videos, calling them “psychological terror”.
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These images have received very little coverage in the Israeli media and on social networks, with many people expressing their anger and sadness at what are often presented as elements of “propaganda” of the Islamist movement.
• Over 160,000 children vaccinated against polio in Gaza, campaign continues
Taking advantage of three-day “humanitarian pauses”, an anti-polio campaign was launched on Sunday in central Gaza with the aim of vaccinating more than 640,000 children under the age of 10 across the territory, ravaged by eleven months of war.
Vaccination campaign underway ” GOOD “said Rik Peeperkorn, representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the Palestinian territories on Tuesday. The total number of children under the age of ten vaccinated so far stands at 161,000, he said. “exceeding the estimated target of 156,500 children” which had been set for this operation. There still remains “at least ten days” for this first round of vaccination, Mr. Peeperkorn said.
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It has so far been confined to the centre of the narrow Palestinian territory. The campaign is expected to move to the south of the territory on Thursday with the aim of vaccinating some 340,000 children, then to the north for another 150,000. The second phase of vaccination is planned “in four weeks”he further detailed. In total, WHO hopes to vaccinate 640,000 children. The vaccine is administered in health centers or by mobile teams.
• Deadly strikes continue in the enclave
Meanwhile, the Israeli offensive in Gaza continues unabated. In the south, two Palestinians were killed when a shell hit a tent for displaced people in Khan Younis, according to the civil defense. In the center, a strike targeted a house near Al-Boureij. and artillery fire targeted Nousseirat, while in the north, troops blew up residential buildings in Gaza City, AFP reported from local witnesses.
Israeli military strikes have killed 33 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, according to Palestinian emergency services. Four women were killed in an Israeli strike in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, while eight others died near a hospital in the same city. Others were killed in separate airstrikes in the territory, Reuters reported.
The Israeli army announced that it had killed eight Palestinian gunmen, including a senior member of Hamas’ armed wing, Ahmed Fawzi Nasser Mohammed Wadiyya, who took part in the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. It said the attack took place at a command post near the hospital at Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City.
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