On the 29th of August, the IDF has reported that it had dismantled the Rafah brigade of Hamas which operating in the southern Gaza Strip city, as well as having destroyed 80% of the tunnels used by the terrorist group there, in the Philadelphi Corridor area. The rescue of a living hostage in Rafah on August 27 can be understood as being evidence of such a success. The number of hostages still being held in captivity in Gaza are thought to be residing at 108, up to this date, with a third of them estimated to be registered as casualties. Unfortunately, there is little evidence to either confirm, or reject these presuppositions but 6 such casualties were recovered in the second-to-last week of August.
Tzahal’s withdrawal from eastern Deir al-Balah has left behind a desolate environment, while new condemnations by the UN against the IDF were issued following the shooting of a World Food Programme car, despite the route and composition being already known by Israel’s army, the convoy being in coordination with them. The driver and passengers were not harmed because of the bulletproof windows, despite being hit more than 10 times.
According to UNFPA, the IDF has issued no less than 12 evacuation orders on average in Gaza in August, every two days, forcing the displacement of close to 250.000 people. Since the war has started, more than 88.5 per cent of the Gaza Strip has been placed under evacuation orders according to OCHA.
On the ceasefire negotiations front, Iran is also participating in these, using mediators from Qatar – the newest evidence of this was the meeting which took place in Teheran on August 26 between the newly elected President of Iran, Pezeshkian, alongside the Foreign Affairs Minister, Abbas Araghchi and the Qatari Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister. It is reported that the position of Iran is one of support to whatever Hamas decides regarding these negotiations.
A temporary humanitarian pause is said to be starting on the 31st of August as to allow UNICEF, UNRWA and the World Health Organization to start the polio vaccination campaign, an effort which is being coordinated after a 10-month-old baby was diagnosed with a strain of the virus in Gaza. More than 25 years have passed since the last evidence of the disease was encountered in the area. The campaign was previously announced by the UN agencies to start by the end of August.
The resurgence of the virus has without a doubt been caused by the ongoing war that has been raging on for more than 10 months, due to the lack of access and safety for the medical staff of the humanitarian agencies.
In the West Bank, the IDF has discovered IEDs similar to the one that had accidentally set itself off in Tel Aviv on August 19th and is using a measure to deal with potential terrorist and to limit civilian casualties by evacuating the population when operating in terror centers, the reports describe.
The exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel continue, with a drone strike reportedly taking place on 28th of August which targeted a vehicle on the Damascus-Beirut highway in Syria, with multiple casualties reported. Three of them have since been claimed by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and one by Hezbollah.