Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 61 in 48 hours as UN pursues vaccinations

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO (Reuters) - Israeli military strikes across the Palestinian Gaza Strip killed at least 61 people in the space of 48 hours, medics said on Saturday, as Israeli forces battled Hamas-led militants in the territory.

Eleven months into the war, numerous rounds of diplomacy have so far failed to clinch a ceasefire deal to end the conflict and bring the release of Israeli and foreign hostages held in Gaza.

Airstrikes on two former schools that were housing displaced people, one in Gaza City and one in Jabalia, killed at least 12 people, Palestinian medics said.

The Israeli military said the strikes targeted Hamas gunmen who were operating in the compound. Five more people were killed in a strike on a house in Gaza City, Palestinian medics said, with a total of 28 people killed on Saturday.

The armed wings of the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah groups said they had fought Israeli troops across Gaza with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs, and in some incidents detonated bombs to target tanks and other army vehicles.

The two warring sides continued to blame one another for the failure of mediators, including Qatar, Egypt and the United States, to broker a ceasefire. The U.S. is preparing to present a new proposal, but the prospects of a breakthrough appear slim as gaps between the sides remain wide.

CIA Director William Burns, the chief U.S. negotiator, told an event in London that a more detailed proposal would be made in the coming days.

Tens of thousands of Israelis joined protests in Tel Aviv and other cities, demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government make a deal under which the remaining 101 hostages would be released.

The killing of six hostages last week triggered an outpouring of anger and grief that led to mass protests. The hostages had been shot in the head by Hamas, Israel said, not long before their bodies were found by troops in a Gaza tunnel last Saturday.

"They could have been saved," said Einav Zangauker, whose 24-year-old son Matan had been abducted by militants from his home in Nir Oz kibbutz. "As long as Netanyahu is in power, we will keep getting the hostages back in body bags."  

POLIO VACCINATIONS CONTINUE

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was incumbent on both Israel and Hamas, which seized control of Gaza almost two decades ago and was responsible for the Oct. 7 killing spree in Israel that triggered the war, to make concessions to reach a deal.

On Saturday, senior Hamas official Hossam Badran said the group had made no new demands and remained committed to a July 2 proposal put forward by the United States, accusing Netanyahu of attaching new conditions that would not end the war.

Netanyahu says it was Hamas that introduced unacceptable conditions.

Despite the deadlock, the United Nations, in collaboration with local health authorities, has pursued a campaign to vaccinate 640,000 children in Gaza after its first polio case in around 25 years. Limited pauses in the fighting have allowed the campaign to proceed.

U.N. officials said they were making progress, having reached more than half of the children needing the drops in the first two stages in the southern and central Gaza Strip.

On Sunday, the campaign will move to the northern Gaza Strip. A second round of vaccination will be required four weeks after the first.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered by the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and in which about 250 hostages were taken, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's subsequent assault on the enclave has killed more than 40,900 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, while also displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million.

The Palestinian health ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants in its casualty reports, but health officials say most the fatalities have been civilians.

Israel, which has lost 340 soldiers in Gaza, says at least a third of the Palestinian dead are fighters.

(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Nicoco Chan and Miro Maman in Tel Aviv; Editing by Kevin Liffey and David Holmes)