Gaza’s health ministry says an Israeli drone struck a clinic in northern Gaza where children were being vaccinated against polio, a claim Israel’s military has denied.
The incident, which occurred on Sunday during a pause in fighting, wounded six people, including four children.
The World Health Organization and UNICEF, who are jointly carrying out the vaccination campaign, have both expressed concern over the reported strike.
“Today’s attack occurred while the humanitarian pause was still in effect, despite assurances given that the pause would be respected from 6am to 4pm,” UNICEF spokesperson Rosalia Bollen told AP.
She described the incident as “disturbing”.
An Israeli military spokesperson, Nadav Shoshani, said Israel “did not strike in the area at the specified time”.
The strikes complicated the rollout of a second round of a polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza.
The Israeli army said more than 58,000 children had received a dose of the vaccine, but Gaza’s health ministry claimed it was being prevented from delivery to thousands of children in the region.
The vaccination drive is in response to an outbreak of the virus this year.
At least 31 people were killed on Sunday by continuing Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics say.
Health authorities in Gaza say 13 of those deaths happened in northern Gaza, where Israel’s military has staged an offensive, claiming it wants to prevent a regrouping of militant group Hamas.
Medics said at least 13 Palestinians were killed in separate attacks on houses in Beit Lahiya and Jabalia, the largest of the enclave’s eight historic refugee camps and the focus of the army’s new offensive.
A woman mourns her brother who was killed in an Israeli strike on Sunday. (Reuters: Mohammed Salem)
The rest were killed in separate Israeli strikes in Gaza City and other areas of the south.
A single strike in Khan Younis killed eight people, including four children.
Israel’s military has not commented on its military actions in Gaza on Sunday, according to Reuters.
It has previously stated hundreds of Palestinian militants have been killed in “battles” since the new offensive began on October 5.
Israel strikes city in south Lebanon
The strikes in Gaza are part of a wider conflict unfolding in the Middle East, which has expanded to neighbouring Lebanon.
Iran-backed Hezbollah said it was acting in Lebanon in support of Palestinian militants Hamas, whose unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7 last year triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.
The Australian government considers Hezbollah and Hamas to be terrorist organisations.Â
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to push Hezbollah out of strongholds in Lebanon’s south. (Pool via Reuters: Ohad Zwigenberg)
On Sunday, three people were killed during Israeli air strikes on the Lebanese city of Sidon, according to the country’s health ministry.
Meanwhile, Israel’s military said it had intercepted several projectiles launched from Lebanon.
The war has killed more than 1,900 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.Â
Since war broke out between Israel and Hamas, more than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the health ministry.
Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, Israel and Iran have also attacked each other multiple times.
Iranian-American journalist detained by Iran, US State Department says
The US State Department on Sunday said Iranian-American journalist Reza Valizadeh had been detained for months, according to AP.
He had previously worked for a US government-funded broadcaster.
In August, he posted on social media that he was returning to Tehran for “negotiations” with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, after his family was detained.
Tehran has long used captured foreign nationals as bargaining chips in negotiations, most notably during the 1979 US hostage crisis when dozens of Americans were kept hostage in the US embassy for 444 days.Â
On Sunday, rallies were held to mark the anniversary of the hostage crisis.
In September last year, five Americans detained for years in Iran were freed in exchange for five Iranians in US custody and for $US6 billion ($9 million) in frozen Iranian assets to be released by South Korea.
ABC/wires
