Israeli air strikes have hit central and southern Gaza, killing at least 14 people as friends and family members of a Turkish-American activist killed by an Israeli soldier prepare to honour her at a funeral.
The air strikes in Gaza City hit one home housing 11 people, including three women and four children, and another strike hit a tent in Khan Younis with Palestinians displaced by the Israel-Hamas war, Gaza's Civil Defence said on Saturday.
They followed air strikes that hit a tent camp on Tuesday and a United Nations school sheltering displaced on Wednesday.
A campaign to inoculate children in Gaza against polio drew down and the World Health Organisation (WHO) said about 559,000 younger than 10 have recovered from their first dose - seven out of every eight children the campaign aimed to vaccinate.
The second doses are expected to begin later in September as part of an effort the WHO said parties had already agreed to.
"As we prepare for the next round in four weeks, we’re hopeful these pauses will hold because this campaign has clearly shown the world what’s possible when peace is given a chance,” Richard Peeperkorn, WHO’s representative in Gaza and the West Bank, said in a statement on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the body of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, the Turkish-American activist killed on September 6 by an Israeli soldier, was returned to her hometown late on Friday accompanied by a police honour guard, the official Turkish news agency reported.
Draped in a Turkish flag, the coffin was carried from a hearse to a hospital in Didim by six officers in a ceremonial uniform.
Her funeral is due to be held in the coastal town in western Turkey later on Saturday.
The 26-year-old activist from Seattle, who held US and Turkish citizenship, was killed after a demonstration against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to an Israeli protester who witnessed the shooting.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday that Eygi was likely shot “indirectly and unintentionally” by Israeli forces.
Turkey announced it would investigate her death.
Anadolu Agency reported her body arrived in Didim after an autopsy at the Izmir Forensic Medicine Institute.
Eygi’s death was condemned by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as the US, Egypt and Qatar pushed for a cease-fire and the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas.
Talks have repeatedly bogged down as Israel and Hamas accuse each other of making new and unacceptable demands.
The war began when Hamas-led fighters killed some 1200 people, mostly civilians, in an October 7 attack on southern Israel.
They abducted another 250 people and are still holding about 100 hostages after releasing most of the rest in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a week-long cease-fire in November.
About a third of the remaining hostages are believed to be dead.
The war has caused vast destruction and displaced about 90 per cent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times, and plunged the territory into a severe humanitarian crisis.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began.
The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count but says women and children make up more than half of the dead.
Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants in the war.
