Azerbaijan to Open Representative Office in Ramallah

The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, with Azeri Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov (dpa)
The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, with Azeri Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov (dpa)
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Azerbaijan to Open Representative Office in Ramallah

The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, with Azeri Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov (dpa)
The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, with Azeri Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov (dpa)

The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, sent a letter to the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, confirming his country's desire to boost bilateral ties and open a representative office soon, according to sources in the Palestinian presidency.

The message was delivered by Azeri Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, who was at the Palestinian presidency in Ramallah on Thursday.

The sources said that Abbas briefed Bayramov and his accompanying delegation on the latest developments in the Palestinian territories, especially since Azerbaijan heads the Non-Aligned Movement.

The President referred to Palestine's keenness to boost the solid historical relations with Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan recognizes the State of Palestine, which has an embassy in Baku.

The Foreign Minister conveyed the greetings of Aliyev, stressing his country's desire to improve brotherly ties.

Baku will soon open its representative office in Palestine, provide 25 scholarships for Palestinian students, and build a school in Nablus with Azeri funding.

Before concluding his visit to the region, Bayramov laid a wreath at the tomb of the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and visited his museum.

The Director General of the Yasser Arafat Foundation, Ahmed Suboh, and the director of the Yasser Arafat Museum, Mohammad Halayqa, briefed the Azerbaijani Minister and his accompanying delegation on the details of the shows at the museum.

Bayramov asserted the close historical ties between Azerbaijan and Palestine, lauding the efforts of Arafat in consolidating them.

Earlier, Bayramov opened an Azeri embassy in Tel Aviv and met with several Israeli officials, led by President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Foreign Minister Eli Cohen.

He confirmed that Israeli-Azeri relations had moved to the highest cooperation and strategic and security partnership stages.

Netanyahu stressed that there are common regional challenges between Israel and Azerbaijan in light of the regional security challenges and Iran's threat to regional stability.



UN Begins Polio Vaccination in Gaza, as Fighting Rages

 Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)
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UN Begins Polio Vaccination in Gaza, as Fighting Rages

 Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)

The United Nations, in collaboration with Palestinian health authorities, began to vaccinate 640,000 children in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, with Israel and Hamas agreeing to brief pauses in their 11-month war to allow the campaign to go ahead.

The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed last month that a baby was partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.

The campaign began on Sunday in areas of central Gaza, and will move to other areas in coming days. Fighting will pause for at least eight hours on three consecutive days.

The WHO said the pauses will likely need to extend to a fourth day and the first round of vaccinations will take just under two weeks.

'Complex’ campaign

"This is the first few hours of the first phase of a massive campaign, one of the most complex in the world," said Juliette Touma, communications director of UNRWA, the UN Palestinian refugee agency.

"Today is test time for parties to the conflict to respect these area pauses to allow the UNRWA teams and other medical workers to reach children with these very precious two drops. It’s a race against time," Touma told Reuters.

Israel and Hamas, who have so far failed to conclude a deal that would end the war, said they would cooperate to allow the campaign to succeed.

WHO officials say at least 90% of the children need to be vaccinated twice with four weeks between doses for the campaign to succeed, but it faces huge challenges in Gaza, which has been largely destroyed by the war.

"Children continue to be exposed, it knows no borders, checkpoints or lines of fighting. Every child must be vaccinated in Gaza and Israel to curb the risks of this vicious disease spreading," said Touma.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued to battle Hamas-led fighters in several areas across the Palestinian enclave. Residents said Israeli army troops blew up several houses in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, while tanks continued to operate in the northern Gaza City suburb of Zeitoun.

On Sunday, Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in southern Gaza where they were apparently killed not long before Israeli troops reached them, the military said.

The war was triggered after Hamas fighters on Oct. 7 stormed into southern Israel killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages by Israeli tallies.

Since then, at least 40,691 Palestinians have been killed and 94,060 injured in Gaza, the enclave's health ministry says.