Israel’s military announced Sunday the discovery of six dead Gaza hostages, as medics in Palestinian territory braced for pauses in fighting for a polio vaccination drive.
The hostages’ remains were recovered Saturday “from an underground tunnel in the Rafah area” and formally identified in Israel, a military statement said.
US President Joe Biden said he was “devastated and outraged” by the deaths.
The military named them as Hersh Goldberg-Polin — an Israeli-American — Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Master Sergeant Ori Danino.
They were among 251 hostages seized during the October 7 attack on southern Israel by Palestinian militants.
Around 100 hostages remain in captivity, dozens of whom the Israeli military says are dead.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said it “bows its head in mourning” for the latest deaths and called for a ceasefire deal.
“Were it not for the delays, sabotage, and excuses those whose deaths we learned about this morning would likely still be alive,” the campaign group said.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign since October 7 has reduced Gaza to ruins, devastating water and sanitation facilities, while disease has spread.
Following the first confirmed polio case in the besieged Palestinian territory in 25 years, a Gaza health official said vaccinations began Saturday ahead of a wider campaign.
The World Health Organization says Israel has agreed to a series of three-day “humanitarian pauses” to facilitate the polio vaccination drive, which an international aid worker told AFP would start in earnest Sunday.
– West Bank assault –
While fierce fighting raged ahead of the hoped-for pauses, Israel pressed on with a large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank.
As Palestinian militants battled Israeli troops in Jenin refugee camp, a local official said soldiers had destroyed most of the streets while power and water had been cut off.
Clashes and explosions persisted in Jenin, and both the health ministry and the Red Crescent reported two more Palestinians killed there.
Israel’s military said a 20-year-old soldier was killed and another severely wounded.
Earlier, the military said two Palestinians were killed while attempting to carry out separate bombings overnight in the southern West Bank.
At least 22 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military since Wednesday in simultaneous raids in several cities across the northern West Bank.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad have said at least 14 of the dead were members of their armed wings.
Israel said it had killed “14 terrorists” since Wednesday in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
Since Friday, soldiers have concentrated operations on Jenin and its refugee camp, a densely-populated community which has long been a bastion of Palestinian armed groups.
Visiting the city Saturday, Israeli military chief of staff Herzi Halevi said his forces “have no intention of letting terrorism (in the West Bank) raise its head” to threaten Israel.
Early Saturday, an AFP photographer in Jenin reported ongoing clashes and said the streets were mostly empty.
“I think it’s the worst day since the start of the raid,” said Jenin Government Hospital director Wisam Bakr.
Water and electricity were cut off from the hospital during the raid, forcing it to rely on a generator and water tank, he told AFP.
Later Saturday, Bashir Matahine from the Jenin municipality told the official Palestinian news agency Wafa that electricity and water “are completely cut off” in Jenin refugee camp and that “80 percent” of the city’s neighbourhoods no longer have water.
He said Israeli bulldozers had dug up 70 percent of the streets, “destroying the water and sewage networks, as well as cables for electricity and telecommunications”.
Violence has surged in the West Bank since Hamas’s October 7 attack.
The United Nations said Wednesday that at least 637 Palestinians had been killed in the territory by Israeli troops or settlers since the Gaza war began.
Twenty Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during army operations over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Britain, France and Spain have all expressed concerns about Israel’s West Bank operation.
– Hezbollah drones –
In Gaza, Israel pushed on with its deadly offensive in response to Hamas’s October 7 attack.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said it counted 42 people killed in Israeli strikes across the territory on Saturday.
The fighting has devastated Gaza, repeatedly displaced most of its 2.4 million people and triggered a humanitarian crisis.
Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s offensive 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.
The war has drawn in Iran-backed groups from around the region and raised fears of a wider conflict.
On Saturday, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it had launched “explosives-laden drones” at Israel’s Beit Hillel barracks “in response” to Israeli attacks.
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