September 2,
2024
Ann Arbor
(Informed Comment) – Basil Maghrebi at the Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports
that tens of thousands of Israelis participated on Sunday evening in massive
demonstrations unprecedented since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack,
especially in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. They were demanding a deal of the
exchange of hostages that would lead to the release of the nearly 100 Israeli
hostages in the hands of Hamas, only 60 or so are thought to remain alive.
Israel’s most
powerful labor union, Histadrut, announced a national strike for Monday,
beginning some labor stoppages as early as Sunday evening. Some retail chains
also said they would close in support of the families of the hostages. Ben
Gurion International Airport will close, as will schools and universities.
Opposition leader Benny Gantz supported closing down the economy in protest.
(The furor was
provoked by the discovery of the bodies of six Israeli hostages in Gaza by
Israeli troops on Saturday night. Three of them had been designated as part of
a hostage exchange with Hamas that the Hamas leadership had agreed to on August
3, but in the implementation of which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
had placed obstacles. Among them were his military occupation of the
Philadelphi Corridor just south of the Rafah crossing into Egypt, which is an
Egyptian prerogative, and to which Hamas objected. Many Israelis believe that
if Netanyahu had accepted the hostage deal in early August, the six who were
killed on Saturday would still be alive. It is alleged that an Israeli military
unit was approaching a Hamas hideout where the hostages were being kept,and
that Hamas terrorists killed them before fleeing. Israeli reporter Noga
Tarnopolsky wrote, “Now it’s official, @IDFSpokesperson
confirms
hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Ori Danino, 25; Alex
Lubanov, 32; Carmel Gat, 40; and Almog Sarusi, 25, ‘were murdered by their
Hamas captors a short time before being located by IDF forces in Gaza
yesterday.'”)
Arab 48 reports
that The Crowd Solutions firm estimated that 280,000 demonstrators came out
Sunday evening in Tel Aviv alone.
Some 100,000
protesters in Tel Aviv closed Kaplan Street for several hours. Others stopped
traffic on the Ayalon Highway, a freeway in Tel Aviv, until police reopened it.
Some of the protesters were families whose members are held hostage in Gaza. In
Jerusalem, demonstrators rallied in front of the prime minister’s residence and
then completely closed an entrance to the city for two hours. Police sprayed
them with water canons and arrested 5. In Beersheba crowds closed off the
city’s central street, and protesters came out in Rehovot (12 miles south of
Tel Aviv) and in Karmiel north of Akka.
One of the
protesters, a woman, mocked Netanyahu’s attempt to blame Hamas. He had said,
“Whoever wants a deal doesn’t kill hostages.” But the demonstrator said he was
speaking of himself, not Hammas, and was speaking of his cabinet members who
voted, she alleged, to sacrifice the hostages. She underscored that “it was
possible to get them back home alive.” She added, “The Israeli government and
its leader deliberately sacrificed the hostages, leading to their deaths.” She
pointed out that the six hostages had been left there eleven months, and killed
only a week ago. The hostage families said they want a deal “now!”
Arab 48 reports,
that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich threatened to “reduce the area
of the Gaza Strip
and cleanse the area two kilometers deep along the Strip.”
Netanyahu
pledged he would make the Hamas fighters pay the price for killing the
hostages.
Hamas for its
part falsely alleged that the hostages were killed by Israeli fire. (The bodies
showed that they were executed at short range.) The terrorist organization said
that if US President Joe Biden really cared about the lives of the hostages he
would pressure the Israeli government for an immediate end to its war on Gaza.
Hamas had
previously announced that heavy Israeli bombardment of Gaza had resulted in the
deaths of hostages.
Members of the
Hamas al-Qassam Brigades and of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad mowed down over
600 innocent civilians on October 7, 2023, and abducted 251 persons, mostly
civilians. During a temporary ceasefire last fall, Hamas released 117 of the
hostages.
UN News reports
that the initial stage of a UN-led polio immunization initiative commenced
Sunday in the central regions of Gaza. The undertaking aims to vaccinate
600,000 youngsters in the upcoming days. To curb the polio outbreak in Gaza and
avert an international spread of the virus, health workers need to immunize at
least 90 percent of children in each round.
Although Israeli
authorities pledged to implement pauses in fighting in vaccination hubs, UN
officials say that these measures are insufficient and that a more extensive
pause in fighting or even a ceasefire is necessary to safeguard the lives of
the vaccination workers and of the parents and children lining up for the
shots.
The campaign
will be executed in phases, spanning three days each, and covering three
different areas of Gaza. Vaccination coverage will be tracked and analyzed
daily, and the vaccination drives will be extended by an additional day if
required. The Middle East Monitor writes, “Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO’s
representative in the occupied Palestinian territories, stated that the polio
vaccination campaign would consist of ‘two rounds.'”
Speaking to
global media on Sunday, Sam Rose, a spokesperson for UNRWA, the UN agency for
Palestinian refugees, announced that over 200 teams are delivering the vaccine
in 25 locations across the central regions of Gaza, in a race against time.
MEMO adds, “The
WHO announced that the vaccination campaign in Deir al-Balah, located in
central Gaza, would continue until Sept. 4. In Khan Younis, a city in southern
Gaza where Israeli attacks continue, the polio vaccination campaign for
children under 10 began Saturday evening.”
UNRWA posted on
“X”:
Today, our teams
went to @unrwa health centres, mobile medical points and tent to tent to
provide #polio vaccinations to children in the middle area of the #GazaStrip
Tomorrow, they
will do the same.
We are doing
everything possible to help all children under 10 years of age receive the
vaccination.
Temporary area
pauses are critical to provide these vaccinations. Beyond the pause, these
children need a long overdue #Ceasefire
Numerous Gazan
families have been lining up to await their children’s turn to receive a polio
immunization since early Sunday morning, in a campaign that aims to halt the
resurgence of a virus driven by unsanitary conditions.
Responding to
the launch on social media, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, wrote at
“X”:
““I am relieved”
says a mother in #Gaza after her baby girl receives the two drops of vaccines
in @UNRWA
clinic. 1st phase of the #polio campaign
kicks off in the middle areas.
This is a race
against time to reach just over 600,000 children across the Gaza Strip in the
coming days.
For this to
work, parties to the conflict must respect the temporary area pauses. For the
sake of children across the region a lasting ceasefire is overdue.”
The vaccination
effort – orchestrated by UNRWA, the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN
Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the Palestinian Ministry of Health – will proceed
in the forthcoming days if the temporary ceasefire between Hamas and Israeli
forces endures.
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