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Israel strikes an aid convoy, killing several people, a relief group says.
Israeli forces struck the lead vehicle in an aid convoy in the Gaza Strip on Thursday night, killing four people, according to an American nonprofit that organized the trucks, in an incident underscoring the dangers aid workers faced in Gaza.
The convoy had been arranged by the American Near East Refugee Aid group, or Anera, and was taking food and fuel to an Emirati-run hospital in southern Gaza, the group said in a statement.
Anera and the Israeli military gave somewhat murky accounts of the incident that left key questions unanswered.
The aid group said it had coordinated the convoy in advance with the Israeli authorities, informing them that they intended to deploy “unarmed security guards” affiliated with a transit company, Move One, to protect the trucks.
But before the convoy set out, four “community members with experience in previous missions,” who had worked on security with Move One, asked to take charge of the lead vehicle in the convoy, citing the danger of looting on the roads, Anera said. The four people had been “neither vetted nor coordinated in advance” with the Israeli authorities, Anera said.
Israel forces subsequently hit the lead vehicle from the air without warning, the military said. Anera said none of its staff were injured.
The Israeli military initially said that “armed assailants” had seized control of the vehicle in front of the convoy. In a later statement, the military said that “armed individuals joined one of the cars,” and that they were the target of the strike, but did not call them assailants or say they had seized control. The rest of the aid convoy reached its destination, the first statement noted.
An Anera spokesman, Steve Fake, said, “We are still gathering the facts but every report from eye witnesses thus far indicates that no weapons were present.”
Sean Carroll, the group’s president, defended the operation as “a case of partners on the ground endeavoring to deliver aid successfully” and said “this should not come at the cost of people’s lives.”
Aid vehicles have occasionally been ransacked either by desperate Gazans or organized gangs, so they sometimes travel with security guards. But though armed guards might provide some safety from threats on the ground, they could also turn aid convoys into unwitting targets for the Israeli military.
Israel says it is making every effort to ensure the safe provision of relief in a complex war zone. But aid groups argue that the Israeli authorities have dragged their feet on opening more aid routes and easing communications between them and the military to avoid deadly errors.
The deadly war in Gaza has left a long trail of victims among humanitarian workers. More than 280 aid workers have been killed since the war began in October, most of them Gazan staff members of UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.
In April, Israeli drones fired three missiles at a convoy of trucks, marked with the logo of the nonprofit World Central Kitchen, that were ferrying aid workers affiliated with that group, killing seven people. The Israeli military made the decision after spotting men with guns on the roofs of the cars, who they mistakenly assumed were Hamas assailants.
The military later acknowledged that Israeli soldiers had erred in the decision to open fire on the convoy. It dismissed two senior officers, reprimanded three others, and vowed to establish better coordination protocols with humanitarian organizations.
One of Anera’s longtime employees, Mousa Shawwa, was killed when an Israeli airstrike in March targeted the shelter where he was staying with his family, according to the nonprofit. An investigation by The New York Times found that the shelter’s coordinates had been repeatedly shared with Israeli forces, including just days before the attack.
Nonetheless, a string of mishaps and near-misses have continued over the past several weeks.
The World Food Program briefly suspended operations after one of its teams came under fire just yards away from an Israeli checkpoint in central Gaza on Tuesday. Despite clearing their movements with Israeli officials in advance, a marked car carrying the aid workers was riddled with at least ten bullets, the U.N. agency said, though it did not say who had fired on the vehicle. No one was injured in that instance.
Anushka Patil contributed reporting.
— Raja Abdulrahim and Aaron Boxerman reporting from Jerusalem
Key Developments
Israel says it has ended a major operation in two areas of Gaza, and other news.
The Israeli military said it had finished a monthlong operation in the Khan Younis and Deir al Balah areas of Gaza, which had forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of Palestinians. The military, which has described the offensive as an effort to target Hamas infrastructure and fighters, said in a statement Friday that it had killed more than 250 militants, destroyed tunnels spanning nearly four miles and recovered the bodies of six hostages. The statement did not specify whether troops were leaving those areas of southern and central Gaza, but said that Israeli forces were preparing “for the continuation of operations” in the territory.
An oil spill about two miles long has been detected in the Red Sea, according to a letter from the Greek ministry of maritime affairs to the United Nations agency for shipping. The letter, which was sent on Thursday and published online Friday, said the spill matched the location of the Sounion, a Greek oil tanker that was targeted by the Houthi militia in Yemen as it passed through the Red Sea last week. The crew of the ship has been rescued, but the vessel remains at sea, on fire, and appears to be leaking, prompting concerns of a potential environmental disaster. The Iran-backed Houthis have been targeting commercial ships in the Red Sea in allegiance with Hamas since the war in Gaza began last year.
Vice President Kamala Harris said she would continue President Biden’s policies with regard to the war in Gaza. Speaking to CNN on Thursday in her first major interview as the Democratic presidential nominee, Ms. Harris emphasized the need for a cease-fire deal but responded “no” when asked whether she would withhold U.S. weapons shipments to Israel. “I’m unequivocal and unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s defense, and its ability to defend itself, and that’s not going to change,” she said.
Israel told the United States it blamed “a communications error” between military units for an episode in which Israeli troops fired at a World Food Program vehicle, Robert Wood, a U.S. representative to the United Nations, told a U.N. Security Council meeting on Thursday. “We have urged them to immediately rectify the issues within their system that allowed this to happen,” Mr. Wood said. The World Food Program said this week that it was suspending staff movement in the Gaza Strip because of the shooting on Tuesday, noting that it was a marked car that had obtained the necessary security clearances. No staff members were hurt in the shooting, it said.
Criticism was mounting over the operation; Israel’s military claims 20 militants were killed.
The three-day Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank appeared to enter a new phase on Friday, as troops began to pull back from the ravaged city of Tulkarm and the focus of the operation shifted to the flashpoint city of Jenin, with Israeli security forces saying they had killed a local Hamas commander.
International criticism was mounting over the operation, which has killed at least 19 Palestinians since the raid began on Tuesday night in Jenin and Tulkarm, according to Palestinian health authorities. Palestinian militant groups said they were fighting back against Israeli troops and claimed at least some of those killed were fighters.
The Israeli military says the raids are necessary to crack down on militant groups in the northern West Bank that are growing in potency, conducting roughly 150 attacks over the past year against Israeli forces and civilians.
On Friday, the military said that Israeli forces had killed 20 militants and arrested 17 people with suspected ties to terrorism, in addition to destroying dozens of explosive devices and confiscating weapons, since the raids began earlier this week.
The attacks have terrified ordinary Palestinians living in the two cities, who have spent much of the last three days trapped in their homes as gunfire resounds outside.
The operation — Israel’s most intensive and prolonged in the West Bank in more than a year — has prompted fears of a more serious conflict in the territory, where nearly three million Palestinians live under Israeli occupation, at the same time as the devastating war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza nears the end of its 11th month.
France condemned the raids, saying they were “worsening a climate of unprecedented instability and violence” in the West Bank. And Britain said that it was “deeply concerned” by the operation, particularly by reports of civilian casualties and the destruction of infrastructure. “We recognize Israel’s need to defend itself against security threats, but we are deeply worried by the methods Israel has employed,” the British foreign office said in a statement.
The Israeli police said that their special forces had killed Wisam Khazem, a local commander in Hamas, in the Jenin area. Two other militants affiliated with Hamas were also killed in a drone strike as they attempted to flee, the Israeli police said in a joint statement with other Israeli security forces.
Hamas acknowledged that Mr. Khazem was a commander in its armed wing, the Qassam Brigades. In a statement on Telegram, the group vowed that the deaths of its militants would “chart the path to freedom and dignity.”
Israeli troops were still surrounding Jenin’s hospitals, as well as the major arteries leading into the city, said Ahmed Izz al-Din al-Qassam, a local Palestinian official.
Just to the south, Israeli troops had mostly left Tulkarm, Mustafa Taqatqa, the Palestinian governor of the area, said on Friday. The troops left behind torn-up roads and infrastructure, and residents were beginning to try to pick up the pieces in the wake of the destructive raids, he said.
An Israeli security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to comply with protocol, confirmed that Israeli forces had withdrawn from Nur Shams, the neighborhood of Tulkarm that had been a focus of the operation.
Palestinians in Jenin reported that running water, internet and electricity were still cut off, even as most stayed in their homes for fear of being swept up in the raid. UNRWA, the U.N. aid agency for Palestinian refugees, said it had suspended services in some communities because of the violence.
Mr. al-Qassam said the Palestinian governorate had received hundreds of phone calls from residents begging them to organize shipments of food and water amid a sweeping Israeli lockdown.
Ismael Bani Gharra, a Jenin resident, said he was exhausted by the constant violent raids, which have taken place on a near-daily basis since the Israel-Hamas war began last October. In that time, more than 600 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank in clashes with Israeli soldiers and civilians, according to the United Nations.
“Sometimes, I think about emigrating,” said Mr. Bani Gharra, 25. “I don’t know whether it’s right to think that way, but they just don’t stop coming for us.”
West Bank militants had grown slightly more sophisticated in recent months, but were still “absolutely no match” for the Israeli military, he added. Many young men in his neighborhood had scattered to other towns and villages as this week’s raids began, fearing arrest by Israel, he said.
— Aaron Boxerman reporting from Jerusalem
‘We are all afraid’: As Israel’s raid continues, residents of Jenin feel trapped.
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For three days, Khulood Jabr and her family of five have not left their home, fearful of what she said was an Israeli sniper on the roof of a building in their neighborhood and of Israeli forces in the streets in the West Bank city of Jenin.
In the largest military offensive in the occupied West Bank in more than a year, Israeli forces have surged into the area with columns of armored vehicles, bulldozers, fleets of armed drones and hundreds of troops.
The raid has spread fear and misery among civilians who were trapped in their homes as Israeli forces battled militants and dug up roads, causing many to lose water and electricity. Israel says it is targeting fighters who have planned attacks against Israeli citizens, but Ms. Jabr said the raid is punishing her and others indiscriminately.
“The sniper who was at our neighbor’s house was shooting at everyone who tried to go out,” Ms. Jabr, a 39-year-old mother of three, said by messaging app.
“We are all afraid,” she said, especially the children.
Since midnight on Wednesday morning, Palestinians in Jenin, Tulkarm and other parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank have been trapped in their homes. Israeli bulldozers have ripped up roads to unearth improvised explosive devices, the military has said, but residents said the destruction has disrupted water and sewage pipes, and internet and power lines.
The Israeli military says its raids are targeting strongholds of Palestinian armed groups that fight against the Israeli occupation. Jenin has been a source for recruiting by armed groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad and others. Israeli officials said that more than 150 shooting and explosive attacks on Israelis have been planned from the Jenin and Tulkarm areas over the past year.
But residents like Ms. Jabr fear venturing out into the destroyed streets or even too close to a window or balcony. Israeli soldiers have stormed into people’s homes, in what the military has said were searches for weapons, fighters and vantage points for watching over the city.
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Muhammad Al-Masri, who has been trapped at home with his wife and eight children, said that most members of the local armed groups had fled their neighborhood, known as Jenin camp, because it began as a refugee camp for Palestinians who were forced out of or fled present-day Israel in 1948.
Electricity has been out since Thursday night, he said. People are starting to run out of food at home, he added.
— Raja Abdulrahim reporting from Jerusalem
After 11 months of war, Gaza and the region face a new threat: polio.
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Nearly 11 months into a devastating war, a serious new challenge has emerged in Gaza: polio. Now Israel, under a new round of international pressure to prevent an outbreak of the crippling childhood disease, has moved with relative speed to allow U.N. aid agencies to address it.
Starting Sunday, the Israeli military and Hamas will observe brief, staggered pauses in fighting to allow for 640,000 Gazan children to be vaccinated, officials said.
Such a vaccination drive is unprecedented in the war, and health officials warned it faced enormous challenges with much of Gaza’s infrastructure in ruins, hundreds of thousands living in temporary shelters and a history of attacks against relief workers since the fighting began last October.
Still, in the context of a conflict in which the warring sides have agreed on precious little, the agreement on the pauses came together within six weeks after the World Health Organization first said that traces of poliovirus had been found in wastewater in Gaza. Two weeks ago, a nearly year-old boy was confirmed to be Gaza’s first case of the disease in 25 years, lending urgency to U.N. calls for a vaccination campaign.
An outbreak would add to the dire humanitarian challenges facing 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza — and would undoubtedly spur further international condemnation of Israel for the heavy wartime restrictions it has placed on the territory. The resurgence of the disease — which has been eradicated in almost all of the world — reflects the toll of Israeli bombardments that have destroyed Gaza’s waste and water systems.
It could also threaten Gaza’s neighbors, Egypt and Israel: Israeli officials were so concerned about polio spreading that they announced a week after the virus was detected that they would vaccinate their troops in Gaza against the disease.
In a sign of the global worry, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken used a visit to Israel last week to push Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to the pauses in fighting, a senior U.S. official said. Mr. Netanyahu was open to brief, limited pauses, while making clear that he would not agree to a Gaza-wide cease-fire, the official said.
“I think this is a way forward,” Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, the top World Health Organization representative in Gaza, told reporters on Thursday as the agency announced the agreement on the pauses.
“Not doing anything would be really bad. We have to stop this transmission in Gaza, and we have to avoid the transmission outside Gaza.”
Israeli leaders have faced mounting international pressure to improve the humanitarian situation for Palestinians in Gaza, including from the International Criminal Court. For Mr. Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the threat is particularly acute: the court’s top prosecutor, Karim Khan, has petitioned to arrest them for war crimes, including deliberately inflicting starvation and suffering upon the people of Gaza.
Hamas has signaled its leaders see an overriding need for a pause in hostilities to allow vaccinations, even as peace talks over a permanent cease-fire remain bogged down. “We are ready to cooperate with international organizations to secure this campaign,” a Hamas official, Basem Naim, said on Thursday.
U.N. aid agencies plan to begin the massive vaccination drive across Gaza on Sunday, having persuaded Israel after nearly six weeks of warnings about the disease’s possible resurgence to pause combat operations for several hours a day in certain locations.
Israel has periodically paused fighting for humanitarian reasons during the war, including announcing that it would not attack during the daytime along a key aid route in southern Gaza to make it easier for relief convoys to move badly needed supplies into the territory. But those pauses have covered small areas and have not lasted as long as those announced Thursday.
“Israel agreed to these limited humanitarian pauses out of concern that polio can spread and to accommodate an American request,” said Michael Makovsky, president and chief executive of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America.
The vaccinations will begin around 6 a.m. Sunday in central Gaza for at least three days, and longer if needed, Dr. Peeperkorn said. When that is complete, the drive will shift to southern Gaza for three days, and later to northern Gaza for three days.
A second, booster round of immunizations will need to be given four weeks after the first dosages, and Dr. Peeperkorn said that was part of the agreement reached on Thursday. “We expect that all parties will stick to that,” he said.
The World Health Organization and UNICEF, the U.N. children’s fund, have delivered more than 1.2 million doses of polio vaccination from Indonesia to distribute to about 640,000 children in Gaza under 10 years old. Another 400,000 doses are on their way.
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At least 90 percent of those children need to be vaccinated to stop the disease from spreading, Dr. Peeperkorn said.
That will take a force of about 2,100 health and community aid workers in Gaza, at some 700 medical facilities, mobile clinics and shelters. They will administer the polio vaccination during a staggered pause in military operations for nine hours a day for three days in designated areas in each of Gaza’s three main regions — north, south and central.
The agreement for the humanitarian pause was reached Thursday after days of tense negotiations with Israeli officials, who insisted that it was not a first step to a cease-fire and that fighting would not be halted across the Gaza Strip.
Some of the doses will be administered in shelters run by UNRWA, the main U.N. agency that provides aid to Palestinians in Gaza. Israel has accused UNRWA of being infiltrated by Hamas, a charge it denies.
Dr. Peeperkorn said the vaccination drive was planned in coordination with both UNRWA and COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry’s agency that oversees policy for the Palestinian territories. He also said Israeli authorities had agreed to not issue evacuation orders in the times and places that the inoculations are being administered.
Gazan health officials have reported multiple children with symptoms consistent with polio, likely the result of what UNICEF and W.H.O. officials said was severely unsanitary conditions combined with deteriorating health services across the region. The polio virus has been detected in wastewater samples in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, and Deir al Balah, both of which have large populations of displaced Palestinians who have fled Israeli airstrikes.
The vaccination drive will come too late for a boy named Abdul Rahman Abu Al-Jidyan, who is almost a year old and living with his family in a tent in Deir al Balah in central Gaza.
He was born just before the war between Israel and Hamas began last October, and was unable to get the routine vaccinations that are given to babies, his mother said, because the family was constantly forced to move from one shelter to another to escape violence. Then, about two months ago, Abdul Rahman stopped walking and crawling.
“I found the boy vomiting, he stopped moving and had a fever,” his mother, Nivine Abu Al-Jidyan, said in an interview this week with Reuters. Exams at a hospital in Gaza and a sample sent to a lab in Jordan confirmed heath officials’ fears: He had tested positive for polio.
Michael Crowley and Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting.
— Lara Jakes
