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Germany Reduces Military Personnel in Kurdistan

German defense minister Ursula von der Leyen. (Reuters)
German defense minister Ursula von der Leyen. (Reuters)
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Germany Reduces Military Personnel in Kurdistan

German defense minister Ursula von der Leyen. (Reuters)
German defense minister Ursula von der Leyen. (Reuters)

Germany is planning to reduce the number of its military personnel and advisors in Kurdistan by 50, announced Germany's defense minister Ursula von der Leyen.

Von der Leyen met with officials from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), including Interior Minister and acting Peshmerga Minister Karim Sinjari, in Erbil on Monday.

"All in all ... we had over the last mandate we had 150, now we will more focus on the specialists, so we will go down to a number that is below 100,” von der Leyen told reporters in a joint press conference.

The German minister visited the region in February, and said that the end of the war against ISIS in Iraq does not mean the achievement of full stability in the region.

Von der Leyen pointed out that the mission will change, noting the first phase was the acute fight against ISIS.

"We were deeply impressed with what the Peshmerga were able to do... Now, it is the time to establish sustainable structures in the ministry of defense with the Peshmerga,” she added.

Germany was among the first countries that provided important military and logistical assistance to the Peshmerga forces since the beginning of its war against ISIS. It also supplied the forces with weapons that helped them during the war. Total military assistance provided by other European countries to Peshmerga reached about $65 million.

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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)
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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.