UN welcomes progress in Gaza polio campaign, calls for permanent ceasefire

A Palestinian child is vaccinated against polio in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 4, 2024. (Reuters)
A Palestinian child is vaccinated against polio in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 4, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 04 September 2024
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UN welcomes progress in Gaza polio campaign, calls for permanent ceasefire

A Palestinian child is vaccinated against polio in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 4, 2024. (Reuters)
  • UNRWA said that three days into the campaign in areas of central Gaza, around 187,000 children had received the vaccine
  • Despite the success of the polio campaign, diplomatic efforts to secure a permanent ceasefire have faltered

CAIRO: Good progress is being made in rolling out a polio vaccine to children in Gaza but a permanent ceasefire in the 11-month war is needed to ease humanitarian suffering, the main UN agency for Palestinians said on Wednesday.
UNRWA said that three days into the campaign in areas of central Gaza, around 187,000 children had received the vaccine. The campaign will move to other areas of the Palestinian enclave for the second stage.
The campaign was prompted by the discovery of a case of polio in a baby boy last month, the first in the Gaza Strip for 25 years. Israel and Hamas militants agreed to daily pauses of eight hours in the fighting in pre-specified areas to allow the vaccination program. No violations have been reported.
“Great progress! Every day in the Middle Areas of #Gaza, more children are getting vaccines against #Polio,” the head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said on X on Wednesday.
“While these polio ‘pauses’ are giving people some respite, what is urgently needed is a permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages + the standard flow of humanitarian supplies including medical and hygiene supplies (into Gaza),” he said.
Palestinians say a big reason for the return of polio is the collapse of Gaza’s health system and the destruction of most of its hospitals during the war. Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes, something the Islamist group denies.
On Tuesday, COGAT, an Israeli defense ministry agency tasked with coordinating aid deliveries into Palestinian territories, said since the onset of the war, it has facilitated the entry of 282,126 vials of the polio vaccine, enough for 2,821,260 people.
It also said in a statement that approximately 554,512 vials of vaccines have entered the Gaza Strip, enough for 4,973,736 individual vaccines for various diseases and potential epidemics in the territory.
Gaza has around 2.3 million people and is one of the world’s most densely populated places.

Diplomatic standstill
Despite the success of the polio campaign, diplomatic efforts to secure a permanent ceasefire, release hostages held in Gaza and return many Palestinians jailed by Israel, have faltered.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted on Monday that Israeli troops would remain in the Philadelphi corridor on the southern edge of Gaza bordering Egypt, one of the main sticking points in reaching a deal.
Hamas, which wants any agreement ending the war to include a withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza, says such a condition, among some others, would prevent an accord. Netanyahu says the war can only end when Hamas is eradicated.
The impasse is frustrating Israel’s international allies and the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council.
Slovenia’s UN envoy — the council’s president for September — said on Tuesday that patience is running out and the global body will probably consider taking action if a ceasefire cannot be brokered soon.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that the only way a deal could be reached was if Israel agreed to a US proposal on July 2, endorsed by the Security Council, and accepted by the group. Both Israel and Hamas blame failure to clinch a deal on conditions added by each of the two sides.
Israeli forces continued to battle Hamas-led militants in several areas of Gaza, saying they had killed many senior Hamas operatives and struck military infrastructure and command centers over the past 24 hours.
Later on Wednesday, the Israeli military said Israeli troops operating in Rafah, near the Egyptian border, had killed around 200 Palestinian gunmen over the past week and located dozens of weapons in civilian buildings. Hamas denies exploiting civilian facilities and population for military purposes.
The armed wing of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said their fighters had again confronted Israeli troops in the north and south of the territory with anti-tank rockets, mortar fire and explosive devices.
In Khan Younis, an Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinians, including a girl, medics said, while an airstrike in the Darraj suburb of Gaza City killed a local doctor, Nehad Al-Madhoun, in his house.
In the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, medics said an Israeli airstrike killed six Palestinians awaiting aid trucks near the Sheikh Zayed housing project.
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 rampage into southern Israel, when its fighters killed 1,200 people and captured more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 40,800 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the enclave’s health ministry.


Lebanon files complaint against Israel at UN labor body over deadly pager explosions, minister says

Lebanon files complaint against Israel at UN labor body over deadly pager explosions, minister says
Updated 8 sec ago
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Lebanon files complaint against Israel at UN labor body over deadly pager explosions, minister says

Lebanon files complaint against Israel at UN labor body over deadly pager explosions, minister says
Lebanese Labor Minister Moustafa Bayram said he traveled to Geneva to formally file the complaint against Israel at the International Labor Organization
Bayram said the casualty count was even higher than first reported

GENEVA: A Lebanese government minister said Wednesday his country was filing a complaint against Israel at the UN’s labor organization over the string of deadly attacks involving exploding pagers, saying workers were among those killed and injured.
The explosions in mid-September were widely blamed on Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied involvement. The blasts killed at least 37 people, including two children, wounded more than 3,000 and deeply unsettled even Lebanese who have no Hezbollah affiliation.
Lebanese Labor Minister Moustafa Bayram said he traveled to Geneva to formally file the complaint against Israel at the International Labor Organization, a sprawling UN agency that brings together governments, businesses and workers.
Bayram said the casualty count was even higher than first reported, saying “more than 4,000 civilians fell — between martyrs and injured and maimed — in a few minutes by this attack.”
“This method of warfare and conflicts may open the way for many who are evading international humanitarian law to adopt this method of warfare,” the minister told reporters at the UN compound in Geneva.
“It’s a very dangerous precedent, if not condemned,” he said. “We are in a situation where ordinary objects — objects used in daily life — become dangerous and lethal.”
Speaking in Arabic, Bayram insisted that ILO conventions guarantee the safety and security of workers, who “were in their workplace and had their pagers or walkies-talkies exploding all of a sudden,” according to an interpreter.
“I do not know where the outcome (of the complaint) will go, but at least we raised our voices to say and warn against this dangerous approach that strikes at human relations and leads to more conflicts,” he added.
An ILO spokeswoman said she was not immediately aware of the complaint or what redress might be possible through it.

Hezbollah chief says tens of thousands of ‘trained’ combatants ready to fight Israel

Hezbollah chief says tens of thousands of ‘trained’ combatants ready to fight Israel
Updated 4 min 9 sec ago
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Hezbollah chief says tens of thousands of ‘trained’ combatants ready to fight Israel

Hezbollah chief says tens of thousands of ‘trained’ combatants ready to fight Israel
  • “We have tens of thousands of trained resistance combatants” ready to fight, Naim Qassem said
  • He said the results of the US presidential election will have no impact on any possible ceasefire deal

BEIRUT: Hezbollah’s chief said Wednesday his group had tens of thousands of combatants ready to fight, adding that nowhere in Israel was off-limits to attacks.
“We have tens of thousands of trained resistance combatants” ready to fight, Naim Qassem said in a speech marking 40 days since his predecessor was killed.
He also said nowhere in Israel would be “off-limits” to the group’s attacks.
He said the results of the US presidential election will have no impact on any possible ceasefire deal.
“We don’t base our expectations for a halt of the aggression on political developments... Whether (Kamala) Harris wins or (Donald) Trump wins, it means nothing to us,” he said in a pre-recorded speech before Trump’s win was announced.
“What will stop this... war is the battlefield” he said, citing fighting in south Lebanon and Hezbollah attacks on Israel.
The speech was Qassem’s second since he was named Hezbollah secretary-general last week.
He replaced the group’s decades-long chief Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in a massive Israeli strike on the group’s south Beirut bastion.


Iran plays down importance of US election, voices readiness for confrontation

Iran plays down importance of US election, voices readiness for confrontation
Updated 49 min 15 sec ago
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Iran plays down importance of US election, voices readiness for confrontation

Iran plays down importance of US election, voices readiness for confrontation
  • Arab and Western officials tell Reuters Trump may reimpose “maximum pressure policy” through more sanctions on Iran
  • They fear Trump may also empower Israel to strike Iranian nuclear sites and conduct assassinations

DUBAI: Iranians’ livelihoods will not be affected by the US elections, government spokesperson Fatemeh MoHajjerani was reported as saying on Wednesday after Donald Trump claimed victory in the presidential vote.
Arab and Western officials have told Reuters Trump may reimpose his “maximum pressure policy” through heightened sanctions on Iran’s oil industry and empower Israel to strike its nuclear sites and conduct assassinations.
“The US elections are not really our business. Our policies are steady and don’t change based on individuals. We made the necessary predictions before and there will not be change in people’s livelihoods,” MoHajjerani said, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
The Revolutionary Guards did not directly react to Trump’s claimed electoral victory but said Tehran and its allied armed groups in the region are ready for confrontation with Israel.
“The Zionists do not have the power to confront us and they must wait for our response... our depots have enough weapons for that,” the Guards’ deputy chief Ali Fadavi said on Wednesday, as Tehran is expected to respond to Israel’s Oct. 25 strikes on its territory which killed four soldiers.
He added Tehran does not rule out a potential US-Israel pre-emptive strike to prevent it from retaliating against Israel.
In his first term, Trump re-applied sanctions on Iran after he withdrew from a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and world powers that had curtailed Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for economic benefits.
The reinstatement of US sanctions in 2018 hit Iran’s oil exports, slashing government revenues and forcing it to take unpopular steps, such as increasing taxes and running big budget deficits, policies that have kept annual inflation close to 40 percent.
Iran’s national currency has weakened at the prospect of a Trump presidency, reaching an all-time low of 700,000 rials to the US dollar on the free market, according to Iranian currency tracking website Bonbast.com.


Iranian Revolutionary Court sentences four individuals to death over charges of spying for Israel

Iranian Revolutionary Court sentences four individuals to death over charges of spying for Israel
Updated 06 November 2024
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Iranian Revolutionary Court sentences four individuals to death over charges of spying for Israel

Iranian Revolutionary Court sentences four individuals to death over charges of spying for Israel

DUBAI: Four people were sentenced to death by a revolutionary court in northwestern Iran over charges of spying for Israel, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Wednesday.
Fars said three of the defendants — whose nationalities it did not give — were accused of helping Israel’s spy agency Mossad move equipment used in the 2020 assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
Fakhrizadeh was viewed by Western intelligence services as the mastermind of a covert Iranian program to develop nuclear weapons capability. The Islamic Republic has long denied any such ambition.
The Jewish Chronicle newspaper reported in February 2021, citing intelligence sources, that Fakhrizadeh was killed by a one-ton gun smuggled into Iran in pieces by Mossad agents, both Israeli and Iranian nationals.
Israel declined to comment at the time of his killing and on Wednesday an Israeli government spokesman said in response to the Fars report: “We never comment on such matters. There has been no change in our position.”
Fars said the fourth defendant sentenced to death was linked to another unspecified espionage case.


Rescuers pull 30 bodies from a building in central Lebanon hit in an Israeli strike

Rescuers pull 30 bodies from a building in central Lebanon hit in an Israeli strike
Updated 06 November 2024
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Rescuers pull 30 bodies from a building in central Lebanon hit in an Israeli strike

Rescuers pull 30 bodies from a building in central Lebanon hit in an Israeli strike
  • The airstrike hit the building in the town just north of the port city of Sidon, an area that has not been regularly targeted by Israeli military operations

BARJA: Lebanese rescuers pulled 30 bodies out of the rubble after a late night Israeli strike on an apartment building in the town of Barja, Lebanon’s Civil Defense service said Wednesday as the Mideast wars press on with no signs of abating.
It remained unclear if there were any survivors or bodies still trapped under the rubble following the Tuesday night airstrike, which came without warning. There was no statement from the Israeli military and the strike’s intended target also was unknown.
Barja, a town just north of the port city of Sidon in central Lebanon, has not been regularly targeted so far in the conflict.
“Something pulled me hard, and then the explosion happened,” said Moussa Zahran, who was at home with his wife and son when the building was hit. He said he couldn’t see but started digging through the rubble until he found his wife and son — alive but injured — and pulled them out. Both are still in the hospital, he said.
Another building resident, Muhyiddin Al- Qalaaji, said he was at work when the strike happened and heard the news from his wife who called him frantically.
“There are many dead and injured,” he said as he carried out what he could salvage of the family’s belongings on Wednesday morning.
Civil defense official Mostafa Danaj said some of the neighbors have reported there are still people missing.
Israeli forces and the Hezbollah militant group have been clashing for more than a year, since Hezbollah started firing rockets across the border soon after the deadly Hamas-led attack on southern Israel sparked the ongoing war in Gaza in October last year.
The war on the Lebanese front has substantially escalated since mid-September, with Israel launching a massive aerial bombardment and ground invasion.
On Wednesday, sirens blared across northern and central Israel, including in the populous metropolitan area of Tel Aviv, as Hezbollah launched 10 rockets toward Israel. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue services said there were no reports of injuries.
A large portion of a rocket slammed into a parked car in the central Israeli city of Raanana. Rockets also struck an open area near Israel’s main airport, Israeli media reported, though the airport said flights were operating as normally.
Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue services said there were no injuries. Israeli police said they arrested 40 people during protests on Tuesday night when the demonstrators blocked Israel’s main highway in Tel Aviv.
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in a surprise announcement that sparked protests across the country. Gallant’s replacement is Foreign Minister Israel Katz, a longtime Netanyahu loyalist and veteran Cabinet minister.
While Netanyahu has called for continued military pressure on Hamas, Gallant said military force created the necessary conditions for at least a temporary diplomatic deal that could bring home hostages held by the militant group.
The Israel-Hamas war began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others, taking them back to Gaza as hostages.
Israel’s military response in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials say. They do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say more than half of those killed were women and children.
Since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted in 2023, at least 3,000 people have been killed and some 13,500 have been wounded in Lebanon, about a quarter of them women and children, the Health Ministry reported.
Hezbollah continues to send dozens of rockets and drones toward Israel. The projectiles have killed 72 people in Israel so far, including 30 soldiers, according to Netanyahu’s office.
A report by Lebanon’s crisis response unit said that 361,300 Syrians and over 177,800 Lebanese have crossed into Syria between Sept. 23 and Nov. 1, to escape the fighting.
Another night of protests was planned across Israel on Wednesday evening, over Gallant’s firing.
Netanyahu and Gallant have repeatedly been at odds over the war in Gaza but the prime minister had avoided letting go of his rival before the US presidential election on Tuesday.
By midday Wednesday in the Middle East, Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States in a remarkable political comeback.