UN agencies announced today that vaccination with the second dose of the polio vaccine for the vast majority of children in the Gaza Strip has been completed, the Associated Press reported.
A total of 556.774 children under the age of ten received the second dose of the vaccine, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) announced.
This means that 94 percent of the total population of that era was vaccinated, which represents, as assessed, "an exceptional achievement considering the extremely difficult conditions."
It was reported that in northern Gaza, 88 percent of children have been vaccinated, in very difficult conditions because a large Israeli military operation has been going on there for a month.
An estimated 7.000 to 10.000 children in Beit Lahia, Beit Hanun and Jabalia are inaccessible, the statement added.
At least two doses and a minimum of 90 percent of the vaccinated are needed to prevent the spread of the disease.
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Palestinian health officials said today that at least 11 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the northern Gaza Strip.
A house in Beit Lahia was hit and at least six people from the same family were killed, according to the emergency services of the Gaza Ministry of Health.
A mother and her three children, as well as a grandmother and an uncle, were killed, judging by the report of that service. In the Jabalija refugee camp, the Al-Awda hospital announced that it received the bodies of five people killed in the Israeli attack.
The Israeli military says it only targets extremists and tries to avoid harming civilians. She rarely comments on individual attacks, which often kill women and children.
Israel has been conducting a major offensive in the north of the Gaza Strip for a month. That part of the Palestinian territory is the most severely destroyed and the most isolated. The army claims that Hamas has regrouped there.
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Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad said today that more than 2.600 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since Israel launched intense airstrikes on Lebanon in September.
"More than 2.600 people have died in Israeli attacks on Lebanon since September 23," Abiad told Agence France-Presse.
The total number of victims in Lebanon since the beginning of the conflict between Israel and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah in October last year has exceeded 3.000.
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The recently appointed new leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah, Naim Kassem, said today that it is not possible for Israel to win a war against the pro-Iranian organization.
"Victory is ours and we are ready for a war of attrition no matter how long it lasts. In that war Israel cannot win. We will remain firm and (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu cannot win," Kasem said on the occasion of 40 days since the assassination of his of Hassan Nasrallah's predecessor in the Israeli airstrike in Beirut.
Kasem said there is no place in Israel inaccessible to Hezbollah missiles. He assessed that the battlefield is the only way to peace.
"We have tens of thousands of trained fighters capable of confronting the enemy. We will induce the enemy to seek an end to aggression," Kasem said, Palestinian media reported.
Rejecting the prospect of a negotiated agreement, Kasem said the war would end only on the battlefield, not through political action.
However, he added that if Israel stops its actions against Hezbollah, then the way will be opened for indirect negotiations through the Lebanese state, reported Reuters.
Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel, in support of the Palestinian Hamas, which is also backed by Iran, a day after the war in the Gaza Strip began on October 7, 2023.
The clashes intensified at the end of September, and then on October 1, the Israeli ground offensive on southern Lebanon began.
In 13 months, more than 3.000 people died in Lebanon and 72 in Israel, including 30 soldiers.
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The Minister of Labor in the Lebanese government said today that his country is submitting a complaint against Israel to the United Nations labor organization for a series of deadly attacks in which workers were among the dead and injured.
The explosions in mid-September are blamed on Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.
The explosions killed 37 people, including two children, and injured more than 3.000 people.
Lebanese Labor Minister Mustafa Bajram said he traveled to Geneva to formally file a complaint against Israel with the International Labor Organization, which brings together governments, companies and workers.
"This method of warfare and conflict may pave the way for many who avoid international humanitarian law to adopt this method of warfare," the minister told reporters at the UN base in Geneva.
"It is a very dangerous precedent, if not condemned. We are in a situation where ordinary objects become dangerous and deadly," he said.
Speaking in Arabic, Bajram insisted that the workers "were at their workplace and their pagers suddenly exploded".
"I don't know where the complaint will go, but at least we raised our voice to say and warn about this dangerous approach that affects human relations and leads to new conflicts," he added.
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Lebanese rescuers pulled 30 bodies from the rubble after an Israeli attack on a residential building in the city of Barja, Lebanon's civil defense said on November 6, as Middle East wars continue with no sign of abating.
It remained unclear whether there were any survivors or bodies still trapped under the rubble after Tuesday night's airstrike, which came without warning. There was no statement from the Israeli army, and the target of the attack is also unknown, Radio Free Europe reports.
Barja, a town north of the port city of Sidon in central Lebanon, has so far not been regularly targeted by the conflict.
Civil defense official Mostafa Danaj said that some of the neighbors reported that people were still missing.
Since the outbreak of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in 2023, at least 3.000 people have been killed and about 13.500 wounded in Lebanon, about a quarter of whom are women and children, the health ministry said.
A report by Lebanon's crisis response unit said 361.300 Syrians and over 177.800 Lebanese crossed into Syria between September 23 and November 1 to escape the fighting.
Hezbollah continues to send dozens of rockets and drones towards Israel. The missiles have so far killed 72 people in Israel, including 30 soldiers, Netanyahu's office said.
Sirens sounded across northern and central Israel on Wednesday, including in the populated Tel Aviv metropolitan area, as Hezbollah fired 10 rockets at Israel. The Israeli rescue services Magen David Adom announced that there were no reports of injuries, reports Radio Free Europe.
Part of the rocket hit a parked car in the central Israeli city of Ranani.
Rockets also hit an open area near Israel's main airport, Israeli media reported, although the airport said flights were operating normally.
Israel's rescue service Magen David Adom said there were no injuries.
Billboards appeared in Israel congratulating Donald Trump on his victory in the presidential elections.
"Congratulations! Trump, make Israel great!" reads a billboard in Jerusalem.
The Israeli military says "about 10 missiles have been identified crossing into Israel from Lebanon" in the past few minutes.
In a statement on the official Telegram channel, the IDF said: "Some of the missiles were intercepted. The IDF currently has no information on injuries."
The Israeli army also announced that one of the rockets hit an area near Ben Gurion Airport on the outskirts of Lod. There are no reports of injuries.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that Israeli security forces have arrested 12 more people in the occupied West Bank in the past few hours.
The agency notes that Israeli forces have arrested more than 11.600 people in the occupied West Bank since the October 7 attack.
Al Jazeera Arabic reports that at least 15 Palestinians were killed this morning in an attack on Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.
The newly appointed Minister of Defense in Benjamin Netanyahu's government, Israel Katz, sent his congratulations to Donald Trump, who will most likely become the President of the United States.
"Congratulations to President-elect Donald Trump on his historic victory. Together we will strengthen the US-Israel alliance, return the hostages and stand firmly against the axis of evil led by Iran," he wrote on the X social network.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that a woman and three children were killed in an Israeli attack on a house in Beit Lahia, in the north of the Gaza Strip.
Israel's military claims it has killed another Hezbollah commander inside Lebanon and said its air force had carried out 70 strikes on targets in Lebanon and Gaza in the past 24 hours.
In a statement published on the IDF's official Telegram channel, the Israeli military named Hussein Abd Al-Halim Harb as the person killed and said he was Hezbollah's commander for the Qiyam region.
The Israeli military claims that he "ordered and carried out many rocket attacks on communities in the Galilee, especially in the Metula area."
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