Israel steps up Gaza strikes; polio vaccination halted by blockade

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO (Reuters) - The Israeli military launched one of the biggest waves of strikes in Gaza for weeks on Tuesday, residents said, and health officials issued a new warning that healthcare faced total collapse from Israel's blockade of all supplies.

Gaza's health ministry said a U.N.-backed polio vaccination campaign meant to target over 600,000 children had been suspended, putting the enclave at risk of the revival of a crippling disease that once had been all-but eradicated.

In diplomacy to end the conflict, a Hamas delegation was due to arrive in Cairo for talks. Two sources said the delegation would discuss a new offer which would include a truce for 5-7 years following the release of all hostages and an end to fighting.

The sources said Israel, which rejected a recent Hamas offer to release all hostages for an end of the war, had yet to respond to the revamped long-term truce proposal. Israel demands Hamas be disarmed, which the militants reject.

Residents said Israeli forces bombed several areas across the enclave from tanks, planes, and naval boats. The attacks hit houses, tent encampments and roads, they added.

The airstrikes destroyed bulldozers and vehicles being used to lift rubble and help recover bodies trapped under the ruins, officials and residents said.

Israel has imposed a total blockade on all supplies to Gaza since the start of March and relaunched its military operations on March 18 after the collapse of a ceasefire.

Since then, Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,600 Palestinians according to the Gaza health authorities, and hundreds of thousands have been forced from their homes as Israel seized what it calls a buffer zone of Gaza land.

Israel's 18-month bombing campaign has rendered nearly all buildings in the Gaza Strip uninhabitable, and Gaza's 2.3 million people now mostly live in the open under makeshift tents. Since the total blockade was imposed last month, all 25 U.N.-supplied bakeries making bread have been shut.

Israel says enough supplies were sent into the enclave during the six-week truce to keep Gazans alive for months. Aid agencies say they fear the population is on the precipice of starvation and mass disease.

Gaza health ministry spokesperson Khalil Deqran said the blockage of supplies was putting the lives of hundreds of thousands of patients in Gaza Strip hospitals at risk due.

If polio vaccines don't arrive immediately, "we anticipate a real catastrophe. Children and patients must not be used as cards of political blackmail," he said. He said 60,000 children were now showing symptoms of malnutrition.

ISRAEL DENIES BLOCKADE BREAKS INTERNATIONAL LAW

Israel says its blockade is aimed at pressuring the Hamas militants who run Gaza to release 59 remaining Israeli hostages captured in the October, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war. Hamas says it is prepared to free them but only as part of a deal that ends the war.

"Israel is acting in full accordance with international law," Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X, in response to U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who called the total Israeli blockade of Gaza since March a war crime.

"The humanitarian condition in Gaza is constantly monitored and large quantities of aid were delivered. Whenever it becomes necessary to allow additional aid, it must be ensured that it does not pass through Hamas, which exploits humanitarian aid to maintain control over the civilian population and to profit at their expense," Katz wrote.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the United Nations Palestinian relief agency UNRWA described the blockade as collective punishment of Gaza's people.

"Humanitarian aid is being used as a bargaining chip + a weapon of war. The siege must be lifted, supplies must flow in, the hostages must be released, the ceasefire must resume," Lazzarini said on Tuesday in a post on X.

Israel says it is still hunting Hamas.

"We will pursue Hamas from wherever it operates, both in the north and south of the Gaza Strip and even outside of it, anywhere," said Brigadier General Effie Defrin, the Israeli military spokesperson.

The conflict was sparked by a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in 1,200 deaths and 251 hostages taken to Gaza, according to Israeli records.

Since then, local health authorities report that over 51,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive.

(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Peter Graff)