DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes hit central and southern Gaza overnight into Saturday, killing at least 14 people as friends and family members of a Turkish-American activist killed by an Israeli soldier prepared to honor her in a funeral.
The airstrikes 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 Defense said Saturday. They followed airstrikes earlier this week 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 Organization said about 559,000 under the age of 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 this month as part of an effort in which 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 Sept. 6 by an Israeli soldier, was returned to her hometown late Friday accompanied by a police honor 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 Saturday.
The 26-year-old activist from Seattle, who held United States 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 Tuesday that Eygi was likely shot “indirectly and unintentionally” by Israeli forces. Turkey announced it will conduct its own investigation into her death.
Anadolu Agency reported her body arrived in Didim after an autopsy at the Izmir Forensic Medicine Institute.
As Eygi’s family watched the coffin being unloaded, her mother had to be helped by medics, the agency said.
Her death was condemned by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken as the United States, Egypt and Qatar push 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 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in an Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. They abducted another 250 people and are still holding around 100 hostages after releasing most of the rest in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a weeklong cease-fire in November. Around a third of the remaining hostages are believed to be dead.
The war has caused vast destruction and displaced around 90% 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 over 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 just over half of the dead. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants in the war.