Gaza Polio Vaccination Campaign Has Reached Over 82% of Targeted Children 

A Palestinian child is vaccinated against polio, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Jabalia in northern Gaza Strip, September 10, 2024. (Reuters)
A Palestinian child is vaccinated against polio, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Jabalia in northern Gaza Strip, September 10, 2024. (Reuters)
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Gaza Polio Vaccination Campaign Has Reached Over 82% of Targeted Children 

A Palestinian child is vaccinated against polio, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Jabalia in northern Gaza Strip, September 10, 2024. (Reuters)
A Palestinian child is vaccinated against polio, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Jabalia in northern Gaza Strip, September 10, 2024. (Reuters)

The Palestinian Health Ministry in the West Bank said an ongoing polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip has reached 82.5% of targeted children.

The ministry said on Wednesday that 527,776 children under the age of 10 have received the first dose of the vaccine across the war-ravaged enclave.

The campaign began earlier this month after the detection of the first confirmed polio case in Gaza in 25 years. It aims at vaccinating about 640,000 children there.

Israel agreed to limited humanitarian pauses to facilitate the campaign, according to the World Health Organization, and there have been no major disruptions from the ongoing war.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is part of the Palestinian Authority, whose forces were driven out of Gaza when Hamas seized power there in 2007 and set up its own government.

The two Palestinian health ministries coordinate with one another and exchange information.



Israeli Troops Wound a Protester in Newly Captured Syrian Territory

An Israeli soldier mans a machine gun atop a military vehicle as they leave the buffer zone on the border between Israel and Syria, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 20 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
An Israeli soldier mans a machine gun atop a military vehicle as they leave the buffer zone on the border between Israel and Syria, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 20 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
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Israeli Troops Wound a Protester in Newly Captured Syrian Territory

An Israeli soldier mans a machine gun atop a military vehicle as they leave the buffer zone on the border between Israel and Syria, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 20 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
An Israeli soldier mans a machine gun atop a military vehicle as they leave the buffer zone on the border between Israel and Syria, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 20 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI

The Israeli military said its soldiers shot and wounded a protester Friday in the Syrian village of Maariyah.
Since the fall of Bashar Assad’s government in Syria, Israel’s military has occupied several locations in the country along the border with Israel.
During a protest Friday by dozens of Syrians against the Israeli presence in Maariyah, soldiers shot at one man who the military said had approached their position, wounding him in the leg, The Associated Press said.
It said the troops acted “in accordance with standard operating procedures.”
The military said that the Israeli army “is not interfering in events taking place in Syria”.Residents in the area previously told The Associated Press that Israeli forces were preventing farmers from reaching their fields.
Israeli leaders say they will remain in the area indefinitely.