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Washington Urges Accountability for Beirut Port Blast

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price gestures at a news conference at the State Department in Washington, DC, US February 28, 2022. Andrew Harnik/Pool via REUTERS
US State Department spokesperson Ned Price gestures at a news conference at the State Department in Washington, DC, US February 28, 2022. Andrew Harnik/Pool via REUTERS
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Washington Urges Accountability for Beirut Port Blast

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price gestures at a news conference at the State Department in Washington, DC, US February 28, 2022. Andrew Harnik/Pool via REUTERS
US State Department spokesperson Ned Price gestures at a news conference at the State Department in Washington, DC, US February 28, 2022. Andrew Harnik/Pool via REUTERS

The United States has reiterated that the Lebanese authorities should complete a “swift and transparent” probe into the explosion that rocked Beirut port in August 2020.

“We in the international community have made it clear since the explosion that ... we support and urge Lebanese authorities to complete a swift and transparent investigation into the horrific explosion at the Port of Beirut,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price.

“The victims of this explosion in August of 2020 deserve justice. Those responsible must be held accountable,” he added.

Price was responding to a question about the judge investigating the Beirut blast, Tarek Bitar, resuming his work and making charges against senior officials.

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Arab World

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.