KHAN YUNIS, Palestinian Territories: Children in Khan Yunis tilted their heads back, mouths open, as they received oral drops during the second phase of a polio vaccination campaign in Gaza, which began on Thursday.
“I have been vaccinated,” five children said proudly one by one, their inked fingers proof of their inoculation against polio.
Gaza’s health ministry reported the first case of polio in 25 years last month, amid the devastating Israel-Hamas war in the Palestinian territory.
At tent camps for the displaced, schools-turned-shelters and health centers, parents brought babies, infants and teenagers for vaccines provided by UN agencies.
“I live in a tent next to a sewage pond with significant disease and epidemic issues, and mosquitoes and worms have affected us,” said Amani Ashur, 37, who brought his one-year-old son Abdul Rahman to be vaccinated.
Like most Gazans, Ashur has been displaced at least once, finding shelter in the Al-Amal neighborhood of Khan Yunis. His child, like many others, has fallen ill from diseases spreading through the makeshift shelters.
Gazans said they feared the spread of diseases due to the overcrowded and unsanitary conditions in the camps and shelters.
“I was worried about my child, so I brought him to be vaccinated,” said Safaa Al-Balbisi, 34, about her two-year-old son Yahya.
“The war, lack of cleanliness, and living in tents and streets, along with the widespread sewage issues, have all contributed to the spread of diseases.”
Raafat Tuman, 46, brought his two-year-old son Adam to Khan Yunis’s Nasser hospital after learning of the campaign on social media.
“I decided to vaccinate my child to protect him from (polio) and other illnesses,” he said.
Hundreds of families gathered at a school-turned-shelter, waiting for the vaccines to arrive.
Thursday marked the fifth day of polio vaccinations in Gaza and the first in the south of the coastal territory.
UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) spokeswoman Louise Wateridge said the aim was to vaccinate 200,000 children against the disease during this phase.
So far, the vaccination drive was going as planned, said Majdi Dahir, Gaza health ministry technical director for the polio campaign.
“The campaign in the Central governorate proved to be highly successful, exceeding the target, which is very positive,” he said, hoping for similar success in the south.
Overall, the campaign aims to fully vaccinate more than 640,000 children in Gaza, with a third phase set to be launched in the north.
Wateridge warned, however, that “in the southern area it’s going to be more difficult to reach a lot of the population,” as the designated humanitarian zones — where Israel has agreed not to strike during the campaign — do not cover all children.
A relative lull in fighting in these areas has offered a brief respite to families after weeks of intense bombing and fighting.
There were still “a lot of strikes this morning and through the night,” Wateridge said, but “one thing I noticed yesterday was, you know, going an hour without hearing a bomb, you notice that.”
Gazans rush to vaccinate children as new polio drive launches
https://arab.news/42xcu
Gazans rush to vaccinate children as new polio drive launches
- Gaza’s health ministry reported the first case of polio in 25 years last month
- Parents bring babies, infants and teenagers for vaccines provided by UN agencies
Trump says ‘someone from within’ Iranian regime might be best choice to lead once war ends
- Trump had earlier called on Iranians to “take over your government” once the war US-Israel strikes end
- He now appears to drift away from the idea of putting an end Iran's theocratic rule
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that “someone from within” the Iranian regime might be the best choice to take power once the US-Israel military campaign is completed — but said “most of the people we had in mind are dead.”
The president, who four days ago had emphatically called on Iranians to “take over your government” once the US-Israel bombardment ends, appeared to drift further away from the idea that the war presents an opportunity to end the theocratic rule that has been in place since the country’s 1979 Islamic revolution.
Trump said that many Iranian officials his administration had viewed as potential new leaders for the country had been killed in the US-Israeli campaign that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and many other top officials.
Trump has not publicly identified anyone whom he views as a credible future leader for Iran. And it’s unclear what, if any, outreach the White House had with Iranian officials since the war started.
“Most of the people we had in mind are dead,” he said in an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office. “Now we have another group, they may be dead also, based on reports. So you have a third wave coming. Pretty soon we’re not going to know anybody.”
Trump said Reza Pahlavi, the exiled crown prince of Iran’s last shah who is trying to position himself for a return should Iran’s Shiite theocracy fall, is not someone that his administration has considered in depth to take over leadership in Iran.
“It would seem to me that somebody from within maybe would be more appropriate,” Trump said, adding that it may make sense for “somebody that’s there, that’s currently popular, if there is such a person” to emerge from the power vacuum.
Trump’s comments came as he hosted German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for his first in-person engagement with a foreign leader since the US and Israel launched the war against Iran.
Trump said he wanted to avoid a “worst case” scenario where “somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person.”
“That could happen. We don’t want that to happen,” Trump added. “You go through this, and then in five years you realize you put somebody in who was no better.”
The White House is trying to counter criticism
The White House has stepped up its push to counter criticism that it moved unnecessarily quickly to launch a war of choice against Iran.
Trump’s decision to strike last week followed lengthy negotiations by the president’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner with the Iranians — talks the US increasingly viewed as an effort to stall any progress.
After the most recent round of discussions in Geneva, Switzerland, last week, Witkoff and Kushner told Trump that reaching a nuclear agreement similar to one that former President Barack Obama struck in 2015 was possible, according to a senior administration official.
The official, who briefed journalists on condition of anonymity, described it as a potential “Obama-plus deal” and Witkoff and Kushner believed such an agreement would take months, but was possible.
Still, even as they expressed their willingness to pursue diplomacy and “fight for every point that we can” if that’s what Trump wanted, the negotiators stressed to the president that the Iranians were not willing to make a deal that would be satisfactory to the US
Trump snaps at the UK, Spain over lack of support
Meanwhile, Trump sharply criticized Britain and Spain for their reluctance to aid the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
“This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with,” Trump fumed about British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Starmer had initially blocked American planes from using British bases for the attacks on Iran that started on Saturday. He later agreed to let the United States use bases in England and on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to strike Iran’s ballistic missiles and their storage sites, but not to hit other targets.
Trump also said he was going to “cut off all trade with Spain,” the day after Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said his country would not allow the US to use jointly operated bases in southern Spain in any strikes not covered by the United Nations’ charter.
Trump disputes that Israel forced his hand
The president also sought to push back on criticism from some of his staunchest allies over the decision to go to war — questions that grew louder after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that the US had decided to strike because “we knew that there was going to be an Israeli action.”
“And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” Rubio said.
But Trump rejected the notion that the White House had been dragged into the conflict by Israel. “We were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack,” Trump said. “If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand.”
Rubio on Tuesday echoed Trump’s insistence that the decision to attack Iran was made independent of Israel.
Merz said during his visit with Trump at the Oval Office that Germany is “looking forward to the day after” the Iran war is over.
He said Berlin wants to work with the US on a strategy for when the current Iranian government no longer exists.
“We are having a high interest in common approach and common work and what we can do,” Merz said. “And this is this is important not just for the Americans,” he said. “This is extremely important for Europe and extremely important for Israel and their security.”
Merz also noted surging oil prices were damaging the world economy, laying down an argument for finding a quick endgame to the conflict.
The president acknowledged that oil and gas prices were going to rise as the US remains engaged in the strikes — yet argued it would be fleeting.
“We have a little high oil prices for a little while, but as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop, I believe, lower than even before,” Trump said.
The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the US jumped 11 cents overnight Tuesday to about $3.11 in the United States, according to the AAA.
