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UN to add nutrients to second round of Gaza polio vaccinations

A Palestinian child is vaccinated against polio in Jabalia in northern Gaza Strip, September 10, 2024. (Reuters)
A Palestinian child is vaccinated against polio in Jabalia in northern Gaza Strip, September 10, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 19 September 2024
Reuters
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UN to add nutrients to second round of Gaza polio vaccinations

A Palestinian child is vaccinated against polio in Jabalia in northern Gaza Strip, September 10, 2024. (Reuters)
  • The first round of the polio vaccination campaign, which began on Sept. 1, reached its target of 90 percent of children under 10 years of age
Updated 19 September 2024
Reuters
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UNITED NATIONS: The second round of a vaccination campaign to protect 640,000 children in Gaza against polio will also deliver micronutrients — essential vitamins and minerals — and conduct nutritional screening, a senior UN Children’s Fund official said.
Discussions are also underway about the feasibility of adding further vaccinations to the campaign, including a measles immunization, said Ted Chaiban, UNICEF’s deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations.
“There are over 44,000 children born in the last year and who haven’t received their basic immunization,” he said on Thursday.
The first round of the polio vaccination campaign, which began on Sept. 1, reached its target of 90 percent of children under 10 years of age, the head of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said on Monday.
It was carried out in phases over two weeks during humanitarian pauses in the fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas. A second round of the polio vaccinations has to be carried out within four weeks.
The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed last month that a baby was partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
A high risk of famine persists across Gaza as long as the war continues and humanitarian access is restricted, according to an assessment by a global hunger monitor published in June.
“In the same way that we’ve been able to reach all children with polio vaccines, we need to move and use the same modality to reach children with their basic vaccines, with some of the nutrition and hygiene interventions that are essential to save their lives,” Chaiban told reporters after visiting Gaza, the West Bank and Israel.
“Those are lifesaving interventions and the parties have shown that they can line up when necessary. It needs to happen again,” he said.

Topics: War on Gaza Polio vaccinations

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When Damascus traffic cops fled, volunteers stepped in

Syrian volunteers help police regulate traffic in Damascus on December 19, 2024. (AFP)
Syrian volunteers help police regulate traffic in Damascus on December 19, 2024. (AFP)
Updated 32 sec ago
AFP
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When Damascus traffic cops fled, volunteers stepped in

Syrian volunteers help police regulate traffic in Damascus on December 19, 2024. (AFP)
  • In Damascus it is now routine to see recent-model cars, registered in Idlib or another northwestern region, Aleppo, which were partially controlled by the rebels and isolated from the capital
Updated 32 sec ago
AFP

DAMASCUS: At a Damascus intersection, young volunteers act as unofficial traffic cops after police assigned to the duty deserted their posts when president Bashar Assad fell to a rapid rebel advance.
Some traffic officers abandoned their uniforms and motorbikes in the street on December 8, the day the rebels took Damascus.
Traffic jams resulted, especially where signals weren’t working or crowds gathered to mark the end to more than half a century of paranoid and brutal rule by the Assad clan.
A local organization took action. It deployed more than 50 volunteers wearing orange vests labelled “Police.”
“We like our country and we wanted to contribute voluntarily to manage the traffic. The country is ours, when before it belonged to one person,” said Baraa Kardazli, 24, one of the volunteers.

They received some quick training under the supervision of the victorious Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham rebels, who have experience running their bastion in Idlib, in Syria’s northwest.
HTS, which dominated the rebel coalition, gave them whistles and batons.
The volunteers, working from 9:00 am until 6:00 pm, were able to resolve much of the traffic problem in just two days, said Omar Merhi, one of the organizers.
Mohammed Mouaffaq Al-Awa, signalling cars to stop or keep moving, is keeping up the effort near a park where the traffic lights haven’t worked for a week because of power cuts.
Further along, around a central square, children sell petrol directly to motorists.
Others wander among the traffic, waving the independence-era flag adopted by Syria’s new rulers.
In Damascus it is now routine to see recent-model cars, registered in Idlib or another northwestern region, Aleppo, which were partially controlled by the rebels and isolated from the capital.
They contrast with the largely dilapidated vehicles that proliferated during Assad’s 24-year rule because of exorbitant import taxes.
Awa, who has a degree in business management, said he never expected to be managing traffic flow.
But he can’t hide his joy.
“I am proud to contribute, even modestly, to help get the country back on its feet,” he said.
“It’s essential that we unite, whatever the extent of our contribution.”
 

 

Topics: Fall of Assad Syria

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Syria’s new rulers name HTS commander as defense minister

Syria’s new rulers name HTS commander as defense minister
Updated 8 min 21 sec ago
Reuters
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Syria’s new rulers name HTS commander as defense minister

Syria’s new rulers name HTS commander as defense minister
Updated 8 min 21 sec ago
Reuters

Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of Al-Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying Al-Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.

Topics: Fall of Assad

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How Assad’s inner circle fled Syria after his fall

How Assad’s inner circle fled Syria after his fall
Updated 57 min 28 sec ago
AFP
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How Assad’s inner circle fled Syria after his fall

How Assad’s inner circle fled Syria after his fall
  • “He left with his secretary and his treasurer” — an Assad insider
Updated 57 min 28 sec ago
AFP

CAIRO: A lightning rebel offensive early this month caught Syria’s ruling clan off guard.
President Bashar Assad fled to Russia on December 8, leaving behind many of his collaborators, some of whom sought refuge in neighboring countries.
According to two sources, the ousted president, who fled to Moscow via the Russian military airfield in Hmeimim on Syria’s coast, was accompanied by only a handful of confidants.
Among them were his closet ally, the secretary-general of presidential affairs Mansour Azzam, as well as his economic adviser Yassar Ibrahim, who oversees the financial empire of Assad and his wife, Asma.
“He left with his secretary and his treasurer,” an insider who requested anonymity said, mockingly.
Bashar’s brother, Maher Assad, commander of the elite Fourth Division tasked with defending Damascus, did not know about his sibling’s plans.
Leaving his men stranded, Maher took a separate route, fleeing by helicopter to Iraq before traveling to Russia, according to a Syrian military source.
An Iraqi security source told AFP that Maher arrived in Iraq by plane on December 7 and stayed there for five days.
Maher’s wife, Manal Al-Jadaan and his son briefly entered Lebanon before departing through Beirut airport, said Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, without disclosing their final destination.
Another Assad government heavyweight, Ali Mamlouk, the former chief of Syria’s security apparatus, fled to Russia via Iraq, said a Syrian military source.
His son passed through Lebanon before leaving for another destination, according to a Lebanese security source.
The Iraqi Interior Ministry denied on Monday the presence of either Maher Assad or Mamlouk in Iraq.
Both are wanted men.
Maher — and Bashar Assad — are wanted by France for alleged complicity in war crimes over chemical attacks in Syria in August 2013.
The French courts have already sentenced Mamlouk and Jamil Hassan, former head of Syria’s Air Force Intelligence, in absentia to life imprisonment for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes.
On Friday, the Lebanese authorities received an Interpol alert relaying a US request to arrest Hassan and hand him over to the US authorities, should he enter the country.
The United States accuses Hassan of “war crimes,” including overseeing barrel bomb attacks on Syrian people that killed thousands of civilians.
A Lebanese judicial source told AFP that they had no confirmation of Hassan’s presence in Lebanon, but assured that he would be detained if found.
Other prominent figures also made hasty escapes.
Bouthaina Shaaban, former translator for Hafez Assad — Bashar’s father who founded the brutal system of government his son inherited — fled to Lebanon on the night of December 7-8.
Shaaban, Bashar Assad’s long-time political adviser, then traveled to Abu Dhabi, according to a friend in Beirut.
Kifah Mujahid, head of the Baath Brigades — the military wing of Syria’s former ruling party — escaped to Lebanon by boat, a party source told AFP.
Other officials took refuge in their hometowns in Alawite regions, some of them told AFP. Assad hailed from Syria’s Alawite minority.
Not all escape attempts were successful.
Ihab Makhlouf, Bashar Assad’s cousin and a prominent businessman, was killed on December 7 while trying to flee Damascus.
His twin brother, Iyad, was injured in the same incident, said a military official from the former government.
Their elder sibling, Rami Makhlouf, once considered Syria’s richest man and a symbol of the regime’s corruption, managed to survive.
Several other figures close to Assad’s government crossed into Lebanon, according to a security source and a source in the business world. These included Ghassan Belal, head of Maher’s office, and businessmen Mohammed Hamsho, Khalid Qaddur, Samer Debs and Samir Hassan.
A former Lebanese minister with close ties to Syria said that several senior Syrian military officers were granted safe passage by the Russians to the Hmeimim air base.
They were rewarded for instructing their troops not to resist the rebel offensive in order to avoid further bloodshed, he said.

Topics: Fall of Assad

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Lebanese army reclaims Palestinian sites in Bekaa that served Syrian regime and Hezbollah

Lebanese army reclaims Palestinian sites in Bekaa that served Syrian regime and Hezbollah
Updated 21 December 2024
NAJIA HOUSSARI
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Lebanese army reclaims Palestinian sites in Bekaa that served Syrian regime and Hezbollah

Lebanese army reclaims Palestinian sites in Bekaa that served Syrian regime and Hezbollah
  • Israeli forces continue violations of ceasefire agreement, carrying out demolition operations in Naqoura
Updated 21 December 2024
NAJIA HOUSSARI

BEIRUT: On Saturday, the Lebanese army took control of several strategic sites previously held by Palestinian factions.

The factions had been affiliated with Syrian president Bashar Assad’s regime, which fell 13 days ago, and subsequently with Hezbollah, and had posed a threat to Lebanon’s eastern sector.

The army took over the Sultan Yaacoub site in western Bekaa from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the General Command and the Halwa camp from Fatah Al-Intifada, and the Hechmech site, located between Qousaya and Deir El Ghazal in central Bekaa, from both factions.

Army command said the forces took over the sites in addition to “seizing quantities of weapons and ammunition and military gear.”

It added that the army “continues to take control of positions previously occupied by Palestinian groups within Lebanon as part of efforts to maintain security and stability and enforce state authority in various areas.”

The camps had remained outside of the Lebanese state’s control for around 40 years, refusing to surrender their weapons under the 1989 Taif Agreement, which stated that all weapons should be surrendered to the Lebanese State, except for firearms in Palestinian camps in Lebanon, which were considered Syrian-protected areas.

Hisham Debsi, director of the independent Palestinian center Tatweer for Strategic Studies and Human Development, told Arab News: “The Syrian regime had launched 13 Palestinian organizations, forming its own system that subsequently served its own policies and those of Hezbollah. With the collapse of Hezbollah, these organizations, which are located in Bekaa, became unprotected, and with the collapse of the Assad regime, the last shield for these organizations — who can be called mercenaries — has fallen.

“They were a disgrace to the Palestinian cause because they would speak in its name when, in fact, they were tools used by the Syrian regime and Hezbollah,” he continued. 
These Palestinian factions aimed to “marginalize Fatah and abolish independent Palestinian decision-making,” said Debsi, adding that the Lebanese army taking control of these sites restored “normalcy.”

Regarding the fate of Palestinian militants affiliated with these factions, he said: “As individuals, if they have families in the Lebanese camps, they can join them. However, most of them are Palestinian refugees from Syria, and they can go wherever they wish in Syria.”

Debsi claimed that most Palestinian refugees who fled from Syria to Lebanon during the 2011 protests had since left for Europe, with only a small number remaining in Lebanon’s camps.

In the recent conflict in Lebanon, Israel did not directly target sites associated with Palestinian factions, which were bombarded in the 2006 war. For years, reports have alleged that these sites housed weaponry, but there has never been concrete evidence to support such claims.

In line with security measures enforcing UN Resolution 1701, the Lebanese army reported on Saturday that its intelligence unit had arrested six individuals and seized weapons during raids on three Palestinian refugee camps in the Bekaa Valley.

In southern Lebanon, invading Israeli forces continued their violations of the ceasefire agreement, carrying out further demolition operations in the town of Naqoura. They also set up a permanent military checkpoint in place of a Lebanese army post near the town’s fishing harbor and razed citrus groves near the UNIFIL headquarters.

An Israeli drone flew at low altitude over the border, an area that residents of the south are prohibited from approaching or traversing.

In the southern suburb of Beirut, the General Directorate of Civil Defense released a statement saying that search and rescue teams had successfully recovered the bodies of four victims from the rubble of the Ayoub building in the Haret Hreik area, which was hit by Israeli airstrikes targeting the residence of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on Sept. 27.

The bodies will undergo DNA testing to confirm their identities, along with three other bodies discovered on Friday in the same area, the statement added.

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Hamas, two other Palestinian groups say Gaza ceasefire deal ‘closer than ever’

Hamas, two other Palestinian groups say Gaza ceasefire deal ‘closer than ever’
Updated 21 December 2024
AFP
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Hamas, two other Palestinian groups say Gaza ceasefire deal ‘closer than ever’

Hamas, two other Palestinian groups say Gaza ceasefire deal ‘closer than ever’
  • Last week, indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States were held in Doha
Updated 21 December 2024
AFP

CAIRO: Hamas and two other Palestinian militant groups said on Saturday that a Gaza ceasefire deal with Israel is “closer than ever,” provided Israel does not impose new conditions.
Last week, indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States were held in Doha, rekindling hope of an agreement.
“The possibility of reaching an agreement (for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal) is closer than ever, provided the enemy stops imposing new conditions,” Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said in a rare joint statement issued after talks in Cairo on Friday.
A Hamas leader told AFP on Saturday that talks had made “significant and important progress” in recent days.
“Most points related to the ceasefire and prisoner exchange issues have been agreed upon,” he said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.
“Some unresolved points remain, but they do not hinder the process. The agreement could be finalized before the end of this year, provided it is not disrupted by (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s new conditions.”
He said that if an agreement is reached it will be implemented in phases, ending with “a serious prisoner exchange deal, a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal (of Israeli forces) from Gaza.”
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was “hopeful” for a deal, but avoided making any predictions as to when it would actually materialize.
“I don’t want to hazard a guess as to what the probability is,” he said at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“It should happen. It needs to happen. We need to get people home,” he said, referring to the release of hostages under a ceasefire deal.
Palestinian militants led by Hamas abducted 251 hostages during their attack on Israel on October 7 last year. Of those, 96 are still held in Gaza, including 36 the Israeli military says are dead.
Efforts to strike a truce and hostage release deal have repeatedly failed over key stumbling blocks.
Despite numerous rounds of indirect talks, Israel and Hamas have agreed just one truce, which lasted for a week at the end of 2023.
Negotiations have faced multiple challenges since then, with the primary point of contention being the establishment of a lasting ceasefire.
Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that he does not want to withdraw Israeli troops from the Philadelphi Corridor, a strip of land cleared and controlled by Israel along Gaza’s border with Egypt.
Another unresolved issue is the governance of post-war Gaza.
It remains a highly contentious issue, including within the Palestinian leadership.
Israel has said repeatedly that it will not allow Hamas to run the territory ever again.

Topics: War on Gaza Israel Palestine Gaza Hamas

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