Blasts Strike Two Egyptian Red Sea Towns

An image from a clip broadcast by Al Arabiya channel of the site where the missile hit in the Egyptian city of Taba (Asharq Al-Awsat)
An image from a clip broadcast by Al Arabiya channel of the site where the missile hit in the Egyptian city of Taba (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Blasts Strike Two Egyptian Red Sea Towns

An image from a clip broadcast by Al Arabiya channel of the site where the missile hit in the Egyptian city of Taba (Asharq Al-Awsat)
An image from a clip broadcast by Al Arabiya channel of the site where the missile hit in the Egyptian city of Taba (Asharq Al-Awsat)

 Projectiles hit two Egyptian Red Sea towns on Friday injuring several people, sources and officials said, showing the risk of regional spillover from the Israel-Gaza conflict.
The explosions hit Taba on the border with Israel and Nuweiba about 70 km (43 miles) further away, two Egyptian security sources told Reuters, saying they were still gathering more information.
There was no claim of responsibility, but Egypt's state-linked Al-Qahera News said the missile that hit Taba appeared to be connected to fighting between Hamas militants and the Israeli military around Gaza, about 220 km (137 miles)miles away.
Egypt's health ministry said six people were injured in Taba, with four already discharged from hospital, after an ambulance facility and residential building were hit.
Witnesses in both places, who asked not to be named, confirmed explosions and smoke rising. Israel's military said it was aware of a security incident outside its borders.
Taba and Nuweiba, both in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, are popular with tourists.

Last weekend, several Egyptian border guards were also injured after being accidentally hit by fragments of a shell from an Israeli tank. Israel apologized for the incident.
 



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.