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JERUSALEM —Israeli airstrikes Saturday killed at least 42 people in central and southern areas of the Gaza Strip, the enclave's civil defense agency said, as fierce fighting continues ahead of a massive polio vaccination campaign.
The United Nations is preparing to inoculate about 640,000 children in Gaza against polio. The campaign is contingent on daily 8-hour breaks in fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas that are to start Sunday, but one vaccination event began Saturday.
"There must be a cease-fire so that the teams can reach everyone targeted by this campaign," said Gaza's deputy health minister, Dr. Yousef Abu Al-Rish. He implored the international community to push for an end to the violence.
Later Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office released a statement saying, "Israel will allow a humanitarian corridor only" and "areas will be established that will be safe for administering the vaccines for a few hours."
Nearly three-quarters of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been displaced by the war that began after Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people and captured about 250 hostages in an October 7 attack on Israel. Israel says it believes Hamas is still holding 107 hostages, including 42 the military says are dead.
Israel's counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 40,600 Palestinians, according to the territory's health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. Gaza health officials have said women and children make up the bulk of the dead; Israel has said most of the dead are combatants.
Violence in West Bank
In the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military announced Saturday that two Palestinians were killed overnight while allegedly preparing bombings. Their deaths came on the fourth day of a major Israeli military operation aimed at stopping attacks by Iranian-backed militant groups.
Since the operation began Wednesday, at least 23 Palestinians, including fighters and civilians, have been killed, the Israeli military said Saturday.
Israel has said its West Bank operation is to protect Israeli civilians from attack by Iranian-backed militant groups, including near settlements largely seen as illegal by the international community.
Hamas praised a recent operation in the southern West Bank as "heroic." Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an ally of Hamas, called the operation a "coordinated attack."
Israel's operations have focused on Jenin and its refugee camps, which are known for their resistance against Israeli forces.
On Saturday morning, an Agence France-Presse photographer in Jenin reported ongoing clashes. He said the streets were mostly empty except for armored vehicles, including one blocking the path leading to the government hospital.
Airstrike in southern Gaza
In southern Gaza, the group American Near East Refugee Aid, also known as Anera, said that an Israeli airstrike killed four Palestinians on Friday in the lead vehicle of a convoy delivering food and fuel to a hospital.
Anera said the convoy was following a "coordinated and cleared transport plan" with unarmed security guards. Israeli authorities said the vehicle was carrying weapons. Despite the attack, the convoy delivered aid to the Emirati-run hospital in Rafah.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, warned that attacks on aid workers are severely limiting aid delivery in Gaza.
OCHA underscored that the attacks endanger aid workers and impede efforts to assist more than 2 million people in need.
VOA's Margaret Besheer and Natasha Mozgovaya contributed to this story. Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.