Israeli Shelling Kills Mayor of Lebanese Village

 An Israeli artillery unit fires from a position in Upper Galilee in northern Israel towards southern Lebanon, on December 11, 2023, amid increasing cross-border tensions as fighting continues with Hamas militants in the southern Gaza Strip. (AFP)
An Israeli artillery unit fires from a position in Upper Galilee in northern Israel towards southern Lebanon, on December 11, 2023, amid increasing cross-border tensions as fighting continues with Hamas militants in the southern Gaza Strip. (AFP)
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Israeli Shelling Kills Mayor of Lebanese Village

 An Israeli artillery unit fires from a position in Upper Galilee in northern Israel towards southern Lebanon, on December 11, 2023, amid increasing cross-border tensions as fighting continues with Hamas militants in the southern Gaza Strip. (AFP)
An Israeli artillery unit fires from a position in Upper Galilee in northern Israel towards southern Lebanon, on December 11, 2023, amid increasing cross-border tensions as fighting continues with Hamas militants in the southern Gaza Strip. (AFP)

An Israeli shell killed the mayor of a Lebanese village on Monday, a relative and Lebanon's National News Agency said, as Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah kept up hostilities ignited by the war in Gaza.

Hussein Mansour was killed in his home in the village of Taybeh a few kilometers (miles) from the border with Israel, the relative Mohamed Mansour told Reuters. The shell which struck him did not explode, the National News Agency said.

The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Violence escalated at Lebanon's border with Israel on Sunday, with the Iran-backed Hezbollah launching explosive drones and powerful missiles at Israeli positions, and Israeli air strikes rocking several towns and villages in south Lebanon.

After a Hezbollah official said on Sunday that Israel had escalated its attacks in Lebanon, an Israeli government spokesperson accused Hezbollah of "escalating its aggression".

"We will respond firmly to any continued aggression and we repeat that Israel is not interested in a two-front war but if Hezbollah decides to drag Israel into a full-scale war, the consequences will be severe for Hezbollah and for the state of Lebanon," government spokesperson Eylon Levy said.



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.