LONODN: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Saturday spoke to his French and German counterparts and outlined UK plans to get aid to people in Gaza and evacuate sick and injured children, his office said.
“The prime minister set out how the UK will also be taking forward plans to work with partners such as Jordan to airdrop aid and evacuate children requiring medical assistance,” a statement said.
In a phone conversation, Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz discussed the humanitarian situation in Gaza “which they agreed is appalling.”
“They all agreed it would be vital to ensure robust plans are in place to turn an urgently needed ceasefire into lasting peace,” according to a readout released by Downing Street.
“They discussed their intention to work closely together on a plan.... which would pave the way to a long-term solution and security in the region. They agreed that once this plan was worked up, they would seek to bring in other key partners, including in the region, to advance it,” it added.
The discussion comes a day after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres slammed the international community for turning a blind eye to widespread starvation in the Gaza Strip, calling it a “moral crisis that challenges the global conscience.”
Aid groups have warned of surging cases of starvation, particularly among children, in war-ravaged Gaza, which Israel placed under an aid blockade in March amid its ongoing war with Hamas. That blockade was partially eased two months later.
The trickle of aid since then has been controlled by the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Britain ‘taking forward’ Gaza food airdrop plan: PM Starmer’s office
https://arab.news/2ktn5
Britain ‘taking forward’ Gaza food airdrop plan: PM Starmer’s office
Pakistan vaccinates over 26 million children amid declining polio cases
- Pakistani authorities say polio cases dropped to 31 in 2025 from 74 a year earlier
- Over 400,000 workers deployed as Pakistan, Afghanistan run simultaneous campaigns
KARACHI: Pakistan on Wednesday said its first nationwide polio vaccination drive of 2026 was continuing for a third day, with health workers having immunized more than 26.8 million children amid a decline in reported cases of the crippling disease.
The campaign, being conducted simultaneously in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan, comes after Pakistan reported 31 polio cases in 2025, a significant drop from 74 cases in 2024, which officials had described as alarming.
More than 400,000 polio workers are going door to door across the country to administer oral polio drops to children, the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) said.
“More than 26.8 million children have been vaccinated nationwide in the first two days of the campaign,” it said in an update, urging parents to cooperate with vaccination teams and ensure their children receive the drops.
According to the statement, more than 14.5 million children have been vaccinated in Punjab, 5.88 million in Sindh, 4.32 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and around 1.28 million in Balochistan.
Vaccination figures also included nearly 294,000 children in Islamabad, more than 165,000 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 446,000 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Health authorities warned that polio is an incurable disease that can cause lifelong paralysis, stressing that sustained immunization efforts were essential to prevent its spread.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where polio remains endemic, and both have stepped up coordinated vaccination drives in recent years amid concerns about cross-border transmission.
