Ceasefire talks, as Gaza death toll crosses 40,000
A fresh round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations got underway in Doha, Qatar, on Aug. 15. The aim is to reach a deal to bring an end to Israel’s more than 10-month-long war in the Gaza Strip and secure the release of the estimated 115 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups from their Oct. 7 attacks into Israel last year. Forty-one of the hostages are believed to be dead, and the recorded death toll from Israel's military campaign has now reached over 40,000, according to health authorities in Gaza. That's roughly 2% of Gaza’s population—or one out of every 50 residents—that has been killed.
Successive rounds of ceasefire talks since April have so far failed to bring an end to the war and secure the release of hostages. The current round of negotiations has been complicated by the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh—a key figure in previous talks—in Iran on July 31. Iran has vowed to launch retaliatory strikes against Israel, raising fears of a wider regional war. Senior Iranian officials, however, have said they will hold back if Israel agrees to a ceasefire deal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now viewed even by the United States as the main obstacle to an agreement. He's vowed to achieve "absolute victory" over Hamas—something his own defense minister Yoav Gallant has called "gibberish." Hamas is not attending the talks in Doha, but is being briefed on what is taking place by mediators.
From The New Humanitarian, Aug. 16
Note that there has been much contestation about the actual death toll in Gaza. See our last reports on the status of the hostages and the threat of regional war.
Israel meanwhile faces a a genocide case before the International Court of Justice over its actions in Gaza.
UN calls for humanitarian pause in Gaza to combat polio threat
UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Aug. 16 urgently called for a humanitarian pause in the Gaza conflict to facilitate a crucial polio vaccination campaign.
Guterres said: "Polio goes beyond politics, it transcends all divisions… It is our shared obligation to come together [and] mobilize- not to fight people, but to fight polio."
Guterres' call was echoed by global health agencies, which stressed the need for at least seven days of ceasefire to allow for the safe administration of vaccines.
In July, the polio virus was found in sewage samples in Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah, with three suspected cases of acute flaccid paralysis reported among children. Just hours after Guterres' appeal, the first polio case was confirmed in an unvaccinated 10-month-old child in Gaza. (Jurist)
Israeli 'pre-emptive' strikes on Hezbollah
The Israeli military said Aug. 25 that it had launched a series of pre-emptive strikes against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon based on intelligence it says indicated that the militant group was planning an attack.
Warplanes destroyed thousands of the armed group's rocket launchers, the IDF said. Hezbollah and its Amal allies said three fighters had been killed.
Hezbollah said it had still managed to fire 320 rockets and drones at Israel in retaliation for the strikes. According to the IDF, one Israeli navy soldier was killed. (NPR, BBC News)
More Israeli air-strikes on Gaza schools
The school at Deir al-Balah that was struck in a deadly air-strike last month has now been hit by an Israeli bomb a second time—this time killing eight civilians who were taking shelter there. (DN)
On Aug. 20, at least 12 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on the Mustafa Hafez school in the western Rimal district of Gaza City, which was also housing displaced people. (BBC News)
Fighting set to 'pause' in Gaza for polio vaccination
Israel has agreed to a series of "humanitarian pauses" in Gaza to allow for the vaccination of children against polio, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said. The campaign will aim to vaccinate around 640,000 children across the Strip and will begin on Sept. 1. It will be rolled out in three separate stages, across the central, southern and northern parts of the strip. During each stage, fighting will pause for nine hours on three consecutive days. The agreement comes days after UN officials said a 10-month-old baby had been partially paralysed after contracting Gaza’s first case of polio for 25 years. (BBC)