69% of Gaza Children Get 1st Polio Vaccine Dose

Polio vaccine administered in Gaza (Photo: AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Polio vaccine administered in Gaza (Photo: AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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69% of Gaza Children Get 1st Polio Vaccine Dose

Polio vaccine administered in Gaza (Photo: AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Polio vaccine administered in Gaza (Photo: AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The Palestinian Health Ministry on Sunday announced that 69% of the Gaza Strip’s children, aged one day to 10 years, received the first dose of the polio vaccine.

The ministry said in a statement published by the Palestinian News and Info Agency, WAFA, that the children received their first doses after 7 days since the launch of the first round of the vaccination campaign in the governorates of Deir al-Balah, Khan Yunis and surrounding areas.

The campaign has so far administered the vaccine to 441,647 children, as of Saturday evening. This includes 49% females and 51% males.

The vaccination campaign will continue in the governorates of Gaza and North Gaza, read the statement.
It added that the teams of the Palestinian Health Ministry, UNRWA, the World Health Organization, and UNICEF are continuing their efforts in the vaccination campaign despite the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Strip and the significant challenges posed by the current security situation affecting the movement between vaccination centers.

Last month, Palestinian health officials reported the first case of polio in an unvaccinated 10-month-old child in the Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, the first case in 25 years in the coastal enclave that has been engulfed in the Israel-Hamas war since Oct. 7.

His family, who had to be displaced repeatedly due to the war, said that they were never able to vaccinate him, like many children in the Gaza Strip.



Iraqis Stranded in Beirut Face Black Market for Return Tickets

Iraqi citizens wait outside Iraqi Airways office in Beirut (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Iraqi citizens wait outside Iraqi Airways office in Beirut (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Iraqis Stranded in Beirut Face Black Market for Return Tickets

Iraqi citizens wait outside Iraqi Airways office in Beirut (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Iraqi citizens wait outside Iraqi Airways office in Beirut (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The Iraqi Airways office in Beirut has become a daily destination for stranded Iraqi citizens desperately seeking tickets and empty seats on flights home, after Baghdad suspended air travel amid escalating regional tensions sparked by Israel’s assault on Iran.

From tourists who had planned family vacations, to patients seeking treatment or workers on business trips, hundreds of Iraqis have been stuck in Lebanon for over a week with no clear path home.

The Iraqi Ministry of Transport halted air traffic across all airports last week—except Basra International Airport, which resumed limited daytime operations on Sunday—as a precaution following the Israeli strike on Iran, a move mirrored by other regional countries impacted by the conflict.

Iraq’s airport authority said it had set up an emergency operations room and designated Basra as the sole return point for citizens stranded abroad. The decision has triggered flight bottlenecks and chaos, with Basra now receiving planes from multiple countries.

“It’s a mess,” said Mustafa, one of the many Iraqis stranded in Beirut. “We were supposed to fly back with my family of six, but our flight was suddenly cancelled, and we were given no details about an alternative.”

Efforts by Asharq Al-Awsat to reach the Iraqi embassy in Beirut and airline officials for clarification went unanswered.

Video footage circulating online shows chaotic scenes at Beirut airport, where frustrated Iraqi travelers jostle and argue over limited tickets to Basra.

“There’s no transparency,” Mustafa added. “The plane can hold 280 passengers, but only 60 official tickets are sold. The rest are offered by black market brokers for as much as $1,200 each. These tickets should have been issued by the airline for free.”

For a 60-year-old Iraqi woman who came to Beirut for medical treatment, the wait has turned into a painful ordeal.

“I was scheduled to return to Baghdad three days ago after finishing my treatment,” she told Asharq Al-Awsat while sitting outside the Iraqi Airways office. “I’ve been coming here every day since, waiting for help. I’m ill and in pain—this delay is unbearable.”

On Tuesday, Reuters quoted Ali Jumah, Iraq’s civil aviation representative at Basra airport, as saying: “The airport is now open from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. by order of the Ministry of Transport to help evacuate Iraqis, Arabs, and foreigners. Despite the airport’s limited capacity, our staff and crisis cell are working around the clock.”

The Ministry of Transport confirmed it had deployed Iraqi Airways to operate international routes via Basra to repatriate stranded travelers, regardless of nationality.

The ministry said 19 evacuation flights were conducted on Monday and Tuesday alone, and it is prepared to increase capacity to bring back all Iraqis abroad.

Iraq has nine civilian airports, with Baghdad International Airport handling around two million passengers in 2021, making it the country’s busiest. Basra ranks fourth by passenger volume.