US Sanctions Lebanese Network over Alleged Oil, LPG Smuggling for Hezbollah

A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023.  (Reuters)
A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023. (Reuters)
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US Sanctions Lebanese Network over Alleged Oil, LPG Smuggling for Hezbollah

A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023.  (Reuters)
A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023. (Reuters)

The Biden administration on Wednesday issued sanctions on a Lebanese network it accused of smuggling oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to help fund the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

The sanctions target three people, five companies and two vessels that the US Treasury Department said were overseen by a senior leader of Hezbollah's finance team and used profits from illicit LPG shipments to Syria to aid generate revenue for the Iran-backed party.

Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley Smith, in a statement, said Hezbollah "continues to launch rockets into Israel and fuel regional instability, choosing to prioritize funding violence over taking care of the people it claims to care about, including the tens of thousands displaced in southern Lebanon."



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.