Page 38 - Gaza

Polio vaccine campaign begins in Gaza day before fight expected to pause

A campaign to inoculate children in Gaza against polio and prevent the spread of the virus has begun, the Health Ministry has said, as Palestinians in the Hamas-governed enclave and the occupied West Bank reeled from Israel's military offensives. Meanwhile, Israel's military late Saturday in a terse announcement said it had located a number of bodies during combat in Gaza. The army was trying to identify the bodies, including whether they were hostages, but said the process would take several hours. We ask to refrain from spreading rumors, it said. There were no further details. A small number of children in Gaza received vaccine doses on Saturday, a day before the large-scale rollout and planned pause in fighting agreed to by Israel and the UN World Health Organisation. There must be a cease-fire so that the teams can reach everyone targeted by this campaign, said Dr Yousef Abu Al-Rish, Gaza's deputy health minister, describing scenes of sewage running through crowded tent camps. .

640k kids, 1.3 mn doses, 3 days: UN's plan to vaccinate Gaza against polio

The UN health agency and partners are launching a campaign starting Sunday to vaccinate 640,000 Palestinian children in Gaza against polio, an ambitious effort amid a devastating war that has destroyed the territory's healthcare system. The campaign comes after the first polio case was reported in Gaza in 25 years a 10-month-old boy, now paralyzed in the leg. The World Health Organization says the presence of a paralysis case indicates there could be hundreds more who have been infected but aren't showing symptoms. Most people who have polio do not experience symptoms, and those who do usually recover in a week or so. But there is no cure, and when polio causes paralysis it is usually permanent. If the paralysis affects breathing muscles, the disease can be fatal. The vaccination effort will not be easy: Gaza's roads are largely destroyed, its hospitals badly damaged and its population spread into isolated pockets. WHO said Thursday that it has reached an agreement with Israel for

LIVE: India's GDP grows 6.7% in Q1 FY25 against 8.2% a year ago, shows data

Latest news updates: Catch all the news developments from around the world here

Israeli Defence Minister Gallant discusses war goals with IDF chief

The focus of the discussion was expanding the goals of the war to include ensuring the return of Israel's northern communities

Israeli army kills five more West Bank militants, including local commander

The Israeli military says it has killed five more militants in a large-scale operation in the occupied West Bank, including a well-known local commander. There was no immediate Palestinian confirmation of the death of Mohammed Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, a commander in the Islamic Jihad militant group in the Nur Shams refugee camp. The military said he was killed along with four other militants in a shootout with Israeli forces early Thursday after the five had hidden inside a mosque. It said Abu Shujaa was linked to numerous attacks on Israelis, including a deadly shooting in June, and was planning more. He was reported killed earlier this year, but then made a surprise appearance at the funeral of other militants, where he was hoisted onto the shoulders of a cheering crowd. The military said another militant was arrested in the operation in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, and that a member of Israel's paramilitary Border Police was lightly wounded. Israel launched a large-scale

Threat of war with Israel redefines 'normal' life in Lebanon's Beirut

Beirut is used to living with the threat of war, and this was a couple of weeks ago. That threat is now getting more acute

Wasn't polio wiped out? Here's why it is still problem in some countries

Polio was eliminated from most parts of the world as part of a decadeslong effort by the World Health Organisation and partners to wipe out the disease. But polio is one of the world's most infectious diseases and is still spreading in a small number of countries. The WHO and its partners want to eradicate polio in the next few years. Until it is gone from the planet, the virus will continue to trigger outbreaks anywhere children are not fully vaccinated. The recent polio infection in an unvaccinated baby in Gaza is the first time the disease has been reported in the territory in more than 25 years. What is polio? Polio is an infection caused by a virus that mostly affects children under 5. Most people infected with polio don't have any symptoms, but it can cause fever, headaches, vomiting and stiffness of the spine. In severe cases, polio can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis within hours, according to the WHO. The UN agency estimates that 1 in 200 polio cases results i

News updates: UBS cuts China 2024 GDP growth forecast to 4.6%

Latest news updates: Catch all the news developments from around the world here

Israeli raids in occupied West Bank have killed 9: Palestinian officials

Israel launched raids across the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, where its forces killed at least nine Palestinians and sealed off the volatile city of Jenin, according to Palestinian officials. Israel has carried out near-daily raids across the West Bank since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza triggered the ongoing war there. Palestinian militant groups said they were exchanging fire with the Israeli military. The governor of Jenin, Kamal Abu al-Rub, said on Palestinian radio that Israeli forces had surrounded the city, blocking exit and entry points and access to hospitals, and ripping up infrastructure in the camp. The Israeli military confirmed it was operating in the West Bank cities of Jenin and Tulkarem but did not provide further details. Over 600 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli fire since the war in Gaza began over 10 months ago, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Most have died during such raids, which often trigger gunbattles with ...

Biden pushed Gaza pier over warnings it would undercut other aid routes

President Joe Biden ordered the construction of a temporary pier to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza earlier this year even as some staffers for the U.S. Agency for International Development expressed concerns that the effort would be difficult to pull off and undercut the effort to persuade Israel to open more efficient land crossings to get food into the territory, according to a USAID inspector general report published Tuesday. Biden announced plans to use the temporary pier in his State of the Union address in March to hasten the delivery of aid to the Palestinian territory besieged by war between Israel and Hamas. But the $230 million military-run project known as the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore system, or JLOTS, would only operate for about 20 days. Aid groups pulled out of the project by July, ending a mission plagued by repeated weather and security problems that limited how much food and other emergency supplies could get to starving Palestinians. Multiple USAID staff ..

As Israel-Hamas war escalates, polio strikes Gaza for first time in 25 yrs

Born into the devastating Israel-Hamas war, 10-month-old Abdel-Rahman Abuel-Jedian started crawling early. Then one day, he froze his left leg appeared to be paralyzed. The baby boy is the first confirmed case of polio inside Gaza in 25 years, according to the World Health Organization. Abdel-Rahman was an energetic baby, said the child's mother, Nevine Abuel-Jedian, fighting back tears. Suddenly, that was reversed. Suddenly, he stopped crawling, stopped moving, stopped standing up, and stopped sitting. Health care workers in Gaza have been warning of the potential for a polio outbreak for months, as the humanitarian crisis unleashed by Israel's offensive on the strip only grows. Abdel-Rahman's diagnosis confirms health workers' worst fears. Before the war, Gaza's children were largely vaccinated against polio, the WHO says. But Abdel-Rahman was not vaccinated because he was born just before Oct. 7, when Hamas militants attacked Israel and Israel launched a retaliatory offensive

Negotiations more effective than rescues in bringing Israeli hostages home

Israel's military has rescued its eight hostage from Gaza since the 10-month-old war began. While the rescue Tuesday set off celebrations, it also renewed calls from the families of hostages who are still being held in Gaza for a deal that would bring home their loved ones before it's too late. They say an agreement, not military rescues, is the best hope. International mediators have tried for months to broker a deal that would see scores of hostages still held by Hamas exchanged for Palestinian prisoners and a cease-fire. But Israel and Hamas cannot agree on key portions of the deal. Of some 250 hostages taken by Hamas militants in the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war, around 105 were released in a cease-fire last November. Israel says 108 remain in Gaza, at least 36 of whom are believed dead. After 10 months, the IDF managed just to release a small number of hostages from Hamas and the rest of them must be released by negotiations and by ending this war, said Mazen Abu Siam,

News updates: AAP leader Manish Sisodia holds 'padyatra' in Delhi's Mangolpuri area

Latest news updates: Catch all the news developments from around the world here

Israeli strikes across Gaza kill 14, including children, say Palestinians

Palestinian officials say Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 14 people, half of them children. The Civil Defense, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government, said three children and their mother were killed in an airstrike late Monday in the Tufah neighborhood of Gaza City. It said three other people were missing after the strike. Another strike late Monday hit a building in downtown Gaza City, killing a child, three women and a man, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. In southern Gaza, a strike on a home early Tuesday killed five people, including a man, his three children as young as 3 years old and a woman, according to a casualty list provided by Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where the bodies were taken. Palestinian health officials do not say whether those killed in Israeli strikes are civilians or fighters. Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and accuses Hamas of putting them in danger by fighting in residential ar

News updates: Rahul Gandhi targets PM Modi over BJP MP Kangana Ranaut's remarks on farmers

Latest news updates: Catch all the news developments from around the world here

Economists suggest ending war to revive Israel's struggling economy

In Jerusalem's Old City, nearly all souvenir shops are closed. In Haifa's flea market, forlorn merchants polish their wares on empty streets. Airlines are canceling flights, businesses are failing and luxury hotels are half empty. Nearly 11 months into the war with Hamas, Israel's economy is struggling as the country's leaders grind ahead with an offensive in Gaza that shows no signs of ending and threatens to escalate into a wider conflict. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tried to allay concerns by saying the economic damage is only temporary. But the bloodiest, most destructive war ever between Israel and Hamas has hurt thousands of small businesses and compromised international trust in an economy once thought of as an entrepreneurial dynamo. Some leading economists say a cease-fire is the best way to stop the damage. The economy right now is under huge uncertainty, and it's related to the security situation how long the war will go on, what the intensity will be and the .

Gaza cease-fire talks to continue after Cairo meetings fail to resolve gaps

The development came after Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah traded heavy fire

Hezbollah's Nasrallah says attack on Israel completed after drone attack

Expectations of an escalation had risen since a missile strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights last month killed 12 youths

IDF strikes Hezbollah rocket launchers as Israel declares 48-hour emergency

Israel's Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, declared an emergency. This comes as a "special situation in the home front," which enables the IDF Home Front Command to issue restrictions

Israelis stage airstrikes in Lebanon, Hezbollah responds with drone attack

Israel launched airstrikes inside Lebanon early Sunday that its military said targeted positions of the Shiite militia Hezbollah. In a statement, the Israeli military accused Hezbollah of preparing to file missiles and rockets toward Israeli territory. In a self-defense act to remove these threats, the (Israeli military) is striking terror targets in Lebanon, from which Hezbollah was planning to launch their attacks on Israeli civilians, Israeli military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said. Hagari warned Hezbollah would soon fire rockets, and possibly missiles and drones into Israel. Sirens sounded in northern Israel soon after the warning. Lebanese media reported strikes in the country's south without immediately providing more details. Social media footage showed what appeared to be strikes in southern Lebanon. Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv began diverting incoming flights and delaying others due to takeoff Sunday after the Israeli airstrikes in