Israel-Hamas war latest: Israel’s evacuation orders have displaced 90% of Gaza residents, UN says

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Successive Israeli evacuation orders in Gaza, including 12 just in August, have displaced 90% of its 2.1 million residents since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, the top U.N. humanitarian official for the Palestinian territory says.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris says she and President Joe Biden are working to end the war in Gaza, where the International Rescue Committee says the polio virus has been circulating for the first time in a quarter-century because of the destruction of hospitals and water infrastructure, along with overcrowded living conditions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Office says a delegation from the country has arrived in Cairo to resume efforts to salvage a cease-fire deal. The talks are being mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar. A crucial sticking point involves Israel’s demand for lasting control over two strategic corridors in Gaza.

The war began on Oct. 7, when Hamas and other militants stormed Israel, killed around 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted around 250. About 110 hostages are still inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead. The Israeli offensive launched in response has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the local Health Ministry, which doesn’t say how many were militants or civilians.

Here’s the latest:

BERLIN — German airline Lufthansa said Friday that it has extended its suspension of flights to some destinations in the Middle East, but will resume service to Amman and Irbil on Aug. 27.

The company said that the Lufthansa Group — which also includes Austrian Airlines and Swiss — is suspending flights to and from Tel Aviv and Tehran up to and including Sept. 2. Flights to and from Beirut will remain suspended up to and including Sept. 30. It said that “a northern corridor in Iraqi airspace will be used” for flights to Irbil.

Previously, flights to all these destinations were suspended up to and including Aug. 26.

GENEVA — The director-general of the World Health Organization says that a Palestinian infant who has contracted polio, the first case in Gaza in a quarter-century, has developed partial paralysis.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X on Friday that the 10-month-old developed paralysis in the lower left leg and is in stable condition.

“I am gravely concerned,” he said.

Samples from the infected child were tested by the WHO and confirmed to be linked to the variant found in Gaza’s wastewater.

Given the high risk of its spread, the Geneva-based WHO is working with the Palestinian Health Ministry and UNICEF to launch two rounds of vaccinations at the end of August and September.

It’s calling for all parties to implement humanitarian pauses in the fighting for the vaccination rounds to be carried out.

After being eradicated in Gaza 25 years ago, polio vaccinations plunged after the war began on Oct. 7, and the territory has become a breeding ground for the virus, with hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians crowded into tent camps lacking clean water or proper disposal of sewage and garbage.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza — Fighting continued in the central Gaza Strip on Friday, even as the United States, Qatar and Egypt pushed forward to try and win an agreement on a cease-fire deal.

Heavy weapons and machine guns could be heard firing at daybreak near east Deir al-Balah in a video shot by The Associated Press, with the streets nearly deserted. In the southern city of Khan Younis, four people were killed in an early Israeli strike on their vehicle, Palestinian Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal said.

Bassal reported late Thursday that 24 people were killed the day before in multiple strikes across the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military, including in Gaza City in the north and Khan Younis in the south.

He said that the strikes also caused multiple injuries, but didn’t specify how many.

Israel’s military said early Friday that it had killed “dozens” of militants during close-quarters fighting Thursday in the central and southern Gaza Strip. It said that in Khan Younis, the fighting including strikes against areas from which projectiles were launched at southern Israel over the past week.

The air force also struck approximately 30 targets across the Gaza Strip, including military posts, weapons storage facilities and launch sites in the area of Khan Younis, the military said.

CHICAGO — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris says she and President Joe Biden are working to end the war in Gaza as she closed out the Democratic National Convention.

Harris declared Thursday that she would “always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself.”

“At the same time, what has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating,” she said. “Desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety over and over again. … President Biden and I are working to end this war.”

She indicated that the suffering could end with a cease-fire and the release of hostages taken in the October raid.

On Wednesday, the parents of one of the young men being held hostage in Gaza addressed the convention.

UNITED NATIONS — Successive Israeli evacuation orders in Gaza, including 12 just in August, have displaced 90% of its 2.1 million residents since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, the top United Nations humanitarian official for the Palestinian territory says.

Muhannad Hadi said the evacuation orders are endangering civilians instead of protecting them. “They are forcing families to flee again, often under fire and with the few belongings they can carry with them, into an ever-shrinking area” that is crowded and unsafe.

Civilians are being deprived of medical care, shelter, water wells and humanitarian supplies, “running from one destroyed place to another, with no end in sight,” he said.

Hadi said in the statement Thursday that international humanitarian law requires the protection of civilians. “The way forward is as clear as it is urgent: Protect civilians, release the hostages, facilitate humanitarian access, agree on a cease-fire.”

The evacuations are also the latest threat to U.N. personnel working in Gaza and affect humanitarian facilities, according to U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric. He cited as an example that the U.N. World Food Program lost access to its warehouse in central Deir al-Balah.

“This was the third and last operational warehouse in Gaza’s middle area,” Dujarric said. “Five community kitchens operated by WFP have also been evacuated, as the agency seeks new locations for them.”

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