SVE NEWS & FRANCE24.COM Sharing Series —Hamas official calls Biden’s optimism about Gaza ceasefire ‘an illusion’

A senior Hamas official on Saturday dismissed US President Joe Biden’s optimism for an imminent ceasefire deal in Gaza, where rescue workers said an Israeli strike killed 18 members of a single Palestinian family. “To say that we are getting close to a deal is an illusion,” Hamas political bureau member Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement. Read our blog to see how the day’s events unfolded.

Men inspect the damage to a building after an Israeli strike in the southern town of Kfour, in the Nabatiyeh district, on August 17, 2024, amid the ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. © Mahmoud Zayyat, AFP

Summary:

• Lebanon’s health ministry said Saturday an Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon overnight killed at least 10 people, including a woman and two children, even as Western and Arab diplomats step up efforts to stave off a wider regional conflict.
• Violence continued to rage in the Gaza Strip, where an Israeli strike on the central town of Al-Zawaida killed 18 members of a single Palestinian family, according to health officials in the Hamas-held enclave.
• The UN’s health agency has asked for breaks in the fighting in Gaza for seven days to vaccinate more than 640,000 children against polio, which has been discovered in the territory’s wastewater.
• At least 40,074 Palestinians have been killed and 92,537 wounded in Israel‘s war in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave. The Hamas-led October 7 attacks resulted in the deaths of more than 1,190 people, mostly civilians, according to official Israeli figures. Some 250 people were taken hostage, with about 120 remaining in Gaza. Many have been declared dead by Israeli authorities.