Israel Resumes Wall Construction along Border with Lebanon

The Israeli "Iron Dome" on the border with Lebanon (AFP)
The Israeli "Iron Dome" on the border with Lebanon (AFP)
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Israel Resumes Wall Construction along Border with Lebanon

The Israeli "Iron Dome" on the border with Lebanon (AFP)
The Israeli "Iron Dome" on the border with Lebanon (AFP)

Israel on Thursday resumed the construction of its separation wall on the border with Lebanon after heightened tension over a “false” security alert.

Israel used its Iron Dome air defense system Thursday morning to shoot at its own unmanned drone, which they mistook for an enemy drone.

Tension heightened on Lebanon’s southern border after that. Lebanese living close to the border said Israeli warplanes were flying at low altitudes above their villages.

In May, tensions between Israel and Lebanon increased in parallel with maneuvers conducted by the Israeli forces on the border with Lebanon.

Earlier, Hezbollah said its fighters were deployed along the border to counter any Israeli military move against Lebanon.

After an almost two-year hiatus, Israel resumed on Thursday the construction of the separation wall on its northern border with Lebanon.

Lebanese media reported that the Israeli army had begun building a concrete wall at the technical fence between the settlements of Zariit and Shtula on the Israeli side, and the Lebanese town of Ramyah.

Israel began the construction of the wall in 2019, closing several kilometers in the area adjacent to the coast and in the border area near the Galilee.

Lebanon remains vigilant of any Israeli military activity on its southern border after the parliamentary elections.

Israel seeks to install a floating platform in territorial waters to extract oil and gas from a maritime border area adjacent to the disputed area near the border with Lebanon.

Hezbollah had threatened to use missiles or drones to target the platform should Lebanon fail to reach an agreement with Israel to demarcate the maritime borders.

Lebanon rejected in April, without closing the door on negotiations, a US proposal regarding the demarcation of the sea border with Israel which it says would nibble 20 percent of the maritime area it is entitled to.



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.