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Austin, Gallant Discuss Israeli Military Operation in Khan Younis

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin meets with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, on March 9, 2023 (File/Reuters)
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin meets with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, on March 9, 2023 (File/Reuters)
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Austin, Gallant Discuss Israeli Military Operation in Khan Younis

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin meets with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, on March 9, 2023 (File/Reuters)
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin meets with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, on March 9, 2023 (File/Reuters)

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin raised on Thursday with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, the need for a credible plan to ensure the safety of and support for the more than one million people sheltering in Rafah in the Gaza Strip before any military operations proceed there.

In a phone call, the two sides discussed the Israel military operations in Khan Younis, a Pentagon readout said.

Austin also raised the need to improve the deconfliction process with humanitarian groups.

He stressed the importance of more aid reaching Palestinian civilians, as looting and violence hinder access to humanitarian convoys in Gaza.

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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)
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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.