Gaza polio vaccination drive a ‘massive success’: WHO

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Palestinian medics administer polio vaccines to children at the Al-Daraj neighborhood clinic in Gaza City. (AFP)
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A Palestinian child is vaccinated against polio, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Updated 13 September 2024
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Gaza polio vaccination drive a ‘massive success’: WHO

  • Fresh campaign to provide a needed second dose is due to begin in about four weeks
  • WHO had initially said it aimed to vaccinate some 640,000 children, but that had likely been an overestimate of the target population

GENEVA: The WHO chief has hailed the success of the first phase of a giant polio vaccination campaign in war-ravaged Gaza after more than 560,000 children received a first dose.

“This is a massive success amidst a tragic daily reality of life across the Gaza Strip,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X, formerly Twitter.
Disease has spread with Gaza lying in ruins and the majority of its 2.4 million residents forced to flee their homes due to Israel’s military assault — often taking refuge in cramped and unsanitary conditions.
After the first confirmed polio case in 25 years, a massive vaccination effort began on Sept. 1, targeting at least 90 percent of children under 10, aided by localized “humanitarian pauses” in fighting.

BACKGROUND

After the first confirmed polio case in 25 years, a massive vaccination effort began on Sept. 1, targeting at least 90 percent of children under 10.

The campaign’s first phase, which first brought vaccines to children in central Gaza, then the south, and finally to the hardest-to-reach north of the territory, wrapped up Thursday.
A fresh campaign to provide a needed second dose is due to begin in about four weeks in Gaza, besieged for over 11 months.
“We admire all the health teams who conducted this complex operation,” Tedros said, also voicing gratitude to the families for turning out in droves to vaccinate their children against polio.
Poliovirus is highly infectious, most often spread through sewage and contaminated water. It can cause deformities and paralysis and is potentially fatal.
It mainly affects children under the age of five.
WHO has hailed that area-specific humanitarian pauses were respected, allowing the campaign to go ahead, and has urged a broader halt in fighting to help establish humanitarian corridors and the delivery of desperately needed aid throughout the war-torn territory.
“Imagine what could be achieved with a ceasefire!” Tedros said.
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack. Israel’s retaliation has killed at least 41,118 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.
The UN human rights office says most of the dead have been women or children.

 


Gaza civil defense says Israeli strike kills 17

Updated 2 sec ago
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Gaza civil defense says Israeli strike kills 17

  • The bodies of those killed and the wounded were taken to Al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat camp and to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital
  • Victims included children

GAZA: Gaza’s civil defense agency on Tuesday said an Israeli strike killed at least 17 people at a refugee camp in the center of the territory, as Israel’s military targets Hamas positions.
“The civil defense teams recovered 17 martyrs, including children, and several others who were wounded from the three-story home of the Abdul Hadi family, which was bombed by a missile from an (Israeli) warplane in Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said in a statement.
Bassal said the bodies of those killed and the wounded were taken to Al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat camp and to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the city of Deir el-Balah.
Medics at Al-Awda confirmed the toll.
Bassal earlier told AFP that several air strikes rocked central and northern parts of Gaza since the early hours of Tuesday.
Witnesses and rescuers also said Israeli military operations continued in Jabaliya, where troops launched a ground assault in recent days.
Over the past day, Israeli forces killed “approximately 20 terrorists” in air strikes in Jabaliya, the military said in a statement, adding troops also dismantled a weapons storage facility in the area.
On Sunday, the military said troops had encircled Jabaliya in response to indications Hamas was regrouping there despite a year of strikes and hard fighting.
In recent months, troops have returned to several areas across the Palestinian territory where they had previously conducted operations against Hamas, only to find militants rebuilding.
In a separate statement, the military announced it had killed three Hamas militants who had participated in the October 7 attack.
They were killed in an air strike on September 30 that struck a school in Daraj Tuffah area.


Hezbollah’s capabilities still intact despite Israeli claims: group’s deputy chief

Updated 29 sec ago
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Hezbollah’s capabilities still intact despite Israeli claims: group’s deputy chief

  • Naim Qasim says the group supports ceasefire efforts
  • Hezbollah’s deputy chief vows to displace settlers from northern Israel

BEIRUT: Hezbollah’s deputy chief Naim Qasim said in a televised speech on Tuesday that the Iran-backed group’s capabilities were still intact and fighters were pushing back ground incursions into Lebanon despite Israel’s claims and “painful blows.” 
Vowing to continue the “resistance”, Qasim said more Israelis will be displaced from nothern Israel as the militant group expands its rocket fire.
“We are firing hundreds of rockets and dozens of drones. A large number of settlements and cities are under the fire of the resistance,” he added in his address the day after the first year anniversary of the October 7 attacks which prompted the Israeli bombardment of Gaza and later Lebanon killing thousands and displacing millions. “Our capabilities are fine and our fighters are deployed along the frontlines."
He said, “Israel said it will return its settlers to northern Israel, but we vow to displace thousands more.” 
Qasim noted that the displacement of one million Lebanese people amid the escalating violence was a “burden and sacrifice for the resistance.” 
“The enemy thinks that it will weaken us by targeting innocent civilians, so the only solution for us is to resist and persist,” said Qasim. 

He also said Israeli forces have not been able to advance after launching a ground incursion into Lebanon last week. The Israeli military said a fourth division is now taking part in the incursion, which has expanded to the west, but operations still appear to be confined to a narrow strip along the border.

Support for ceasefire efforts
Qasim stressed that the group supported the efforts of Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri - a Hezbollah ally - to secure a ceasefire. 

“In any case, after the issue of a ceasefire takes shape, and once diplomacy can achieve it, all of the other details can be discussed and decisions can be taken,” Qasim said.
“If the enemy (Israel) continues its war, then the battlefield will decide,” he added.

While the group has replaced its slain commanders, Qassim said electing a new secretary general to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut last month, had been challenging due to the war, but “we will announce it once it has been done.” 
“No positions are vacant. All our roles are filled,” said the leader. 
He noted that the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel was a war about who cries first, and the militant group would not cry first.
Praising Iran’s support to the “resistance”, Qasim accused the US of being an essential partner of the crimes in Gaza. 

“The battle is not a battle for Iranian influence, but to help the Palestinians,” said Qasim.
He noted that Lebanon had always been a target for Israel even before its support for Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed to want to form a new Middle East. “We were always the target but the time had never come,” he said. 
“But for 11 months, our rockets have drained Israel,” said Qasim as he vowed victory. 
The regional tensions triggered a year ago by Palestinian armed group Hamas’ attack on southern Israel have spiraled to a series of Israeli operations by land and air over Lebanon and direct attacks by Iran onto Israeli military installations.
Iran warned Israel on Tuesday against any attacks on the Islamic Republic, a week after Tehran fired a barrage of missiles on it, putting the Middle East on edge.


EU’s Borrell says situation in Lebanon is getting worse by the day

Updated 08 October 2024
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EU’s Borrell says situation in Lebanon is getting worse by the day

  • A World Food Programme official also voiced concern about Lebanon’s ability to feed itself

BRUSSELS: The situation in Lebanon is getting worse by the day, the European Union’s foreign chief Josep Borrell told the European Parliament on Tuesday, adding a ceasefire should be achieved.
According to figures, some 20 percent of the Lebanese population had been forced to move, he said.

A World Food Programme official also voiced concern on Tuesday about Lebanon’s ability to feed itself, saying thousands of hectares of farmland across the country’s south has burned or been abandoned amid escalating hostilities.
“Agriculture-wise, food production-wise, (there is) extraordinary concern for Lebanon’s ability to continue to feed itself,” Matthew Hollingworth, WFP country director in Lebanon, told a Geneva press briefing, adding that harvests will not occur and that produce is rotting in fields.
At the same briefing, World Health Organization official Ian Clarke in Beirut warned that there was a much higher risk of disease outbreaks among Lebanon’s displaced population.

Last week, Israel launched what it called a limited ground operation into southern Lebanon after a series of attacks killed longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his top commanders. The fighting is the worst since Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006.
Beirut’s skyline lit up again late Sunday with new airstrikes, a day after Israel’s heaviest bombardment of the southern suburbs known as the Dahiyeh since it escalated its air campaign on Sept. 23.


Palestinian prime minister announces national team to reconstruct Gaza

Updated 08 October 2024
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Palestinian prime minister announces national team to reconstruct Gaza

RAMALLAH: Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa has announced the formation of a national team to reconstruct Gaza.

In a live broadcast from Ramallah on Tuesday, Mustafa said the state had already provided more than 400,000 people in Gaza with aid so far and would continue to do so.

The cost of reconstructing the Gaza Strip could reach $50 billion, according to a UN Development Program official.

Abdullah Al-Dardari, director of the UNDP Regional Office for Arab States, highlighted the critical situation following any potential ceasefire.

He emphasized that the most dangerous phase would be the day after a ceasefire, as displaced individuals and those who had lost their homes anxiously awaited the start of the reconstruction process.

War in Gaza broke out after Hamas provoked Israel on Oct. 7. Israel’s military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians since, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

It has also displaced nearly all of the enclave’s 2.3 million residents, prompted a hunger crisis and led to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.

The war in Gaza has spread through the region, drawing in Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq.

Israel has escalated ground and air offensives in recent weeks in Lebanon, killing hundreds, wounded thousands and displaced over a million.

Israel says it is attempting to dismantle Lebanese Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.

Iran launched a barrage of missiles against Israel this week to which Israel has not yet responded.

Israeli operations have also escalated in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza.

The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had launched targeted raids against Hezbollah in southwest Lebanon, expanding its ground operations along the country’s coastline after deploying more troops.

Last week, Israel launched what it called a limited ground operation into southern Lebanon after a series of attacks killed longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his top commanders. The fighting is the worst since Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006.

Beirut’s skyline lit up again late Sunday with new airstrikes, a day after Israel’s heaviest bombardment of the southern suburbs known as the Dahiyeh since it escalated its air campaign on Sept. 23.

Over the past year, the scale of the killing and destruction in Gaza has drawn some of the biggest global protests in years, including in the US, that saw weeks of pro-Palestinian college campus encampments.

Advocates have raised concerns over alarming antisemitic and Islamophobic rhetoric in some protests and counter-protests related to the conflict. Rights advocates have warned about rising threats against Muslims and Jews around the world.


Turkiye says will evacuate citizens from Lebanon on Wednesday

Updated 08 October 2024
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Turkiye says will evacuate citizens from Lebanon on Wednesday

  • Turkiye is estimated to have 14,000 citizens registered with its consulate in Lebanon

ISTANBUL: Turkiye is sending ships to evacuate around 2,000 of its citizens from Lebanon on Wednesday, the foreign ministry said.
Two Turkish navy ships will leave a port in southern Turkish province of Mersin for Beirut on Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement.
Turkiye is estimated to have 14,000 citizens registered with its consulate in Lebanon.
Turkish officials said they had drawn up contingency plans to evacuate their citizens from Lebanon because of the deteriorating security situation on the ground.
Last week, the foreign ministry said guidelines for the evacuation of third countries’ citizens via Turkiye have also been determined, adding that necessary preparations were underway in cooperation with nearly 20 countries that have requested support.