Lebanon Arrests Individual Who Fired on US Embassy Last Week 

An external view of the entrance of the US Embassy in Awkar, north of Beirut, Lebanon, 21 September 2023. (EPA)
An external view of the entrance of the US Embassy in Awkar, north of Beirut, Lebanon, 21 September 2023. (EPA)
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Lebanon Arrests Individual Who Fired on US Embassy Last Week 

An external view of the entrance of the US Embassy in Awkar, north of Beirut, Lebanon, 21 September 2023. (EPA)
An external view of the entrance of the US Embassy in Awkar, north of Beirut, Lebanon, 21 September 2023. (EPA)

Lebanon's security forces have arrested at least one individual involved in a shooting at the US embassy last week, two security sources told Reuters.

One security source said the individual was a Lebanese man. The second security source said ammunition he had in his possession had also been seized.

The shooting, which did not result in any injuries, occurred late on Wednesday near the highly secured US embassy north of Beirut, in the town of Awkar. Security incidents around the facility are rare.

US ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea said on Friday the embassy was not intimidated by the incident.

"We know that authorities are investigating this incident," Shea said after meeting Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, who condemned the shooting.

Washington moved its embassy to Awkar from Beirut following a 1983 suicide attack in Lebanon's capital that killed more than 60 people.



WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)

The World Health Organization is sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples, its chief said on Friday.

"While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an opinion piece in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.

He wrote that children under five were most at risk from the viral disease, and especially infants under two since normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by more than nine months of conflict.

Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Cases of polio have declined by 99% worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and efforts continue to eradicate it completely.

Israel's military said on Sunday it would start offering the polio vaccine to soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples in the enclave.

Besides polio, the UN reported last week a widespread increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza, with sewage spilling into the streets near some camps for displaced people.