Israel war on Gaza updates: Gaza records first polio case in 25 years

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You can read about the latest developments in the Gaza ceasefire talks here.

To read more on the first polio case reported in Gaza in 25 years, check out our story here.

Finally, you can find all our latest coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.

We will be closing this live page soon. Here is a recap of today’s events:

• The Palestinian Health Ministry has reported the first confirmed case of polio in Gaza, identified in a 10-month-old baby from Deir el-Balah who had not received any polio vaccination.
• Hamas supports a UN request for a seven-day humanitarian pause to vaccinate children against polio, a member of the group’s political bureau has said.
• A joint statement from the mediators Qatar, Egypt and the US says the latest ceasefire talks this week in Doha were “serious and constructive”.
• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Israel this weekend, seeking to “conclude the agreement for a ceasefire and release of hostages and detainees through the bridging proposal”.
• Israeli forces carried out attacks in Gaza City and al-Mawasi area, one of which killed three children sheltering in a tent.
• Hezbollah released a video showcasing heavy missiles in one of its underground military facilities, claiming it is ready for war should Israel attack.

Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara shares insights on the ongoing ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

Speaking from Paris, Bishara highlights the progress made, particularly on bridging gaps and concessions regarding captives and detainees. However, significant contentious issues remain.

While the World Health Organization did not confirm any polio cases in Gaza on Friday, it said that three children in Gaza were found with acute flaccid paralysis – the onset of weakness or paralysis with reduced muscle tone, a common symptom of polio.

The children’s stool samples have been sent for testing to the Jordan National Polio Laboratory, it said.

The potentially fatal, paralysing disease mostly strikes children under the age of five and typically spreads through contaminated water. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where the spread of polio has never been stopped.

In July, the WHO said a variant of poliovirus type 2 was discovered in wastewater samples from southern Khan Younis and central Deir el-Balah, and linked to a variant of the poliovirus last detected in Egypt in 2023.

On Friday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said that a 10-month-old baby has been diagnosed with polio in Gaza, which the United Nations says had been free of the disease for 25 years.

Israeli soldiers have stormed the city of Tulkarem, Wafa news agency has reported.

According to Wafa, two Israeli military vehicles were seen on Nablus Street near the Tulkarem camp and the as-Salam neighbourhood.

No arrests have been reported so far. Israeli raids have increased since the war on Gaza began in October, with thousands of people detained or arrested.

Assad Assad says he and his family feel betrayed.

But more than that, the Palestinian American said his first reaction to the United States government’s decision to continue funding an Israeli army unit that bound his elderly uncle and left him for dead could be summed up in a single word: “devastation”.

“We see this [as] hypocrisy — a US government that allows a foreign entity to have this opportunity to kill,” Assad, 36, told Al Jazeera in a phone interview from his home in the state of Wisconsin.

“They murdered my uncle in cold blood. My uncle was not armed, was not,” he continued, his voice trailing off. “He was just going home from a night with his friends, his cousins, playing a card game.”

Read more here.

Al Jazeera is reporting from outside Israel because it has been banned by the Israeli government.

We do have anonymous sources speaking to Israeli media who have said that, yes, progress has been made towards reaching a ceasefire deal but Netanyahu’s stance is still quite tough.

And one Israeli official speaking, anonymously of course, to the state public broadcaster has said that the progress that was made was only on the Israeli side and Israel should be lowering expectations amid all of this US optimism because, while there has been momentum, and progress has been made towards reaching a deal, it’s still not quite clear if that’s going to happen.

The same Israeli official has said that a smaller, technical Israeli team will remain in Doha until Sunday, while another Israeli delegation will be dispatched to Cairo for the continuation of the talks.

US President Joe Biden has warned all sides not to undermine efforts for a ceasefire in Gaza, as he said that a deal was nearing.

Biden said in a statement that Secretary of State Antony Blinken was travelling to the Middle East in part “to underscore that with the comprehensive ceasefire and hostage release deal now in sight, no one in the region should take actions to undermine this process”.

The Israeli army has shelled a home adjacent to the European Hospital east of Khan Younis, Gaza’s civil defence has said.

It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties from the attack. The attack comes following an Israeli evacuation order for south Gaza, including areas previously designated as a “humanitarian safe zone”.

The Lebanese group says it has hit Israeli artillery positions in Zaura in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights with rockets.

Hezbollah has claimed several attacks on Israeli positions along the Israel-Lebanon border so far today.

The United Nations is readying 1.6 million doses of polio vaccine for children in Gaza as the disease spreads across the devastated Strip.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that if a ceasefire is not enacted, then a “polio pause” would be necessary for a vaccination campaign to take place.

In their latest humanitarian update on Gaza, the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says more than 170,000 Palestinians in Gaza living in internally displaced person sites, shelters and centres have been affected by the evacuation order announced by Israel earlier today.

The evacuation order for south Gaza extends to several areas of Khan Younis and Deir el-Balah that were previously part of Gaza’s “humanitarian zone”, further tightening the area deemed “safe” in the Strip.

Additionally, OCHA reported that stock reserves crucial for “disinfecting drinking and domestic water” would only last for one month.

Several people have been killed and injured following an Israeli shelling of a home in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in the north of Gaza City, the Gaza civil defence has said.

Earlier, the civil defence said that at least three people were killed as a result of an Israeli raid in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood, in the south of Gaza City.

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are reeling after Israeli settlers ravaged a village overnight, killing a 23-year-old man and injuring several others in the latest incident of deadly violence against Palestinians in the area.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said that Mahmoud Abdel Qader Sadda was fatally shot in the attack on Jit, in the northern West Bank about 10km (six miles) west of Nablus.

Dozens of masked Israeli settlers descended on the village, opening fire on residents, setting cars ablaze and destroying homes and other property, according to witnesses and video footage from the assault.

The attack came amid a surge in Israeli military and settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, which has unfolded in the shadow of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.

Read more of this story here.

Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp says the perpetrators “must be held accountable”.

“The Israeli authorities need to take measures to protect communities and to prevent violence,” he posted on X.

A group of Israeli settlers on Thursday shot dead one man, and critically wounded another, during a rampage through the village of Jit in the occupied West Bank.

A Hamas leadership source has spoken to Al Jazeera on the current round of talks held in Doha, Qatar:

Here are his translated comments:

• The occupation continues to evade and obstruct and insists on adding new conditions to obstruct the agreement.
• The new US proposal responds to the conditions of the occupation and aligns with them.
• We reaffirm our commitment to what we agreed to on July 2, based on the Biden declaration and the UN Security Council resolution.
• We call on the mediators to pressure the occupation and oblige it to implement what was agreed upon.
• Any agreement must ensure the cessation of aggression against our people and the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
• Any agreement must also include providing urgent relief and a genuine prisoner exchange deal.

At least three people have been killed as a result of an Israeli raid the in Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood, south of Gaza City, Gaza’s civil defence has said.

Moreover, the group said several people were injured as a result of an Israeli bombing of a home in the al-Farouq Square area in the Zeitoun neighbourhood in the south of Gaza City.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has condemned the escalating violence and crimes committed by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their properties in the occupied West Bank.

In a statement, the OIC “strongly condemned the organised terrorism and daily crimes committed by extremist settler gangs, under the protection of Israeli occupation forces”.

On Thursday evening, Israeli settlers killed a Palestinian citizen, seriously injured another, and set fire to four homes and six vehicles owned by Palestinians during an incursion into the village of Jit.

OIC said it considered these assaults as “part of the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, their land, and their holy sites, in blatant violation of international humanitarian law”.

OIC held Israel “fully responsible for the consequences of the continued perpetration of these heinous crimes”.