DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Born into the devastating Israel-Hamas war, 10-month-old Abdel-Rahman Abu El-Jedian started crawling early. Then one day, he froze — his left leg appeared to be paralyzed.
The baby boy is the first confirmed case of polio inside Gaza in 25 years, according to the World Health Organization.
Abdel-Rahman was an energetic baby, said the child’s mother, Nevine Abu El-Jedian, fighting back tears. “Suddenly, that was reversed. Suddenly, he stopped crawling, stopped moving, stopped standing up, and stopped sitting.”
Health care workers in Gaza have been warning of the potential for a polio outbreak for months, as the humanitarian crisis unleashed by Israel’s offensive on the strip only grows. Abdel-Rahman’s diagnosis confirms health workers’ worst fears.
Before the war, Gaza’s children were largely vaccinated against polio, the WHO says.
But Abdel-Rahman was not vaccinated because he was born just before Oct. 7, when Hamas militants attacked Israel and Israel launched a retaliatory offensive on Gaza that forced his family into near-immediate flight. Hospitals came under attack, and regular vaccinations for newborns all but stopped.
The WHO says that for every case of paralysis due to polio, there are hundreds more who likely have been infected but aren’t showing symptoms. Most people who contract the disease do not experience symptoms, and those who do usually recover in a week or so. But there is no cure, and when polio causes paralysis, it is usually permanent. If the paralysis affects breathing muscles, the disease can be fatal.
The Abu El-Jedian family, like many, now live in a crowded tent camp, near heaps of garbage and dirty wastewater flowing into the streets that aid workers describe as breeding grounds for diseases like polio, spread through fecal matter. The United Nations has unveiled plans to begin a vaccination campaign to stop the spread and protect other families from the ordeal the Abu El-Jedian family now faces.
The family of 10 left their home in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, moving from shelter to shelter until finally settling in a tent in the central city of Deir Al-Balah.
“My son was not vaccinated because of the continued displacement,” his mother said. “We are sheltering here in the tent in such health conditions where there is no medication, no capabilities, no supplements.”
The mother of eight said she was “stunned” to find out that her boy had contracted polio.
The WHO says that there are at least two other children with paralysis reported in the strip, and samples of their stool have been sent to a lab in Jordan.
In order to vaccinate most of Gaza’s children under the age of 10, UNICEF spokesperson Ammar Ammar said a ceasefire is necessary. The health agencies seek a pause in the fighting, which in recent days has sent thousands of Palestinian families fleeing under successive Israeli evacuation orders. Many children live in areas of Gaza that ongoing Israeli military operations make difficult to reach.
“Without the polio pause or ceasefire, it would be impossible,” Ammar said. “This is due to the continued evacuation orders and continued displacement of the children and their families. In addition, it can be extremely dangerous for teams as well, to be able to reach the children.”
The United Nations aims to vaccinate at least 95 percent of more than 640,000 children, beginning Saturday. Already 1.2 million doses of vaccine have arrived in Gaza, with 400,000 more doses set to arrive in the coming weeks, according to UNICEF. Israel’s military body in charge of civilian affairs, COGAT, said it allowed UN trucks carrying over 25,000 vials of the vaccine through the Kerem Shalom crossing Sunday.
“If this is not implemented, it could have a disastrous effect, not only for the children in Gaza, but also neighboring countries and across the borders in the region,” Ammar said.
Back in the family’s tent in Deir Al-Balah, Nevine Abu El-Jedian gazed at her youngest boy, lying still in a plastic car seat-turned bassinet as her seven other children gathered around.
“I hope he returns to be like his siblings, sitting down and moving,” she said.
A 10-month-old Palestinian baby suddenly stopped crawling. Polio had struck Gaza
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A 10-month-old Palestinian baby suddenly stopped crawling. Polio had struck Gaza
- Health care workers in Gaza have been warning of the potential for a polio outbreak for months, as the humanitarian crisis unleashed by Israel’s offensive on the strip only grows
Mother, relatives charged over child’s killing
- Prosecutors at a Diyarbakir court charged the girl’s mother and brother with participating in the murder, while six people, including an uncle and cousins, were charged with destroying evidence
DIYARBAKIR, Turkiye: A Turkish court has jailed pending trial the mother and brother of a murdered eight-year-old girl whose body was found in a sack hidden under rocks in a case that horrified the nation and triggered protests since her disappearance three weeks ago.
President Tayyip Erdogan has said he would seek the most severe punishment for those responsible for the death of Narin Guran, whose body was found in a village near Diyarbakir, the largest city in southeast Turkiye.
Prosecutors at a Diyarbakir court charged the girl’s mother and brother with participating in the murder, while six people, including an uncle and cousins, were charged with destroying evidence.
Another uncle was earlier charged with murder.
Political parties and women’s groups have held protests in various cities across Turkiye to demand justice for Guran, whose murder triggered an outpouring of shock on social media, mainly because of the number of relatives allegedly involved in her killing.
Guran went missing on Aug. 21 from her village, some 10 km south of Diyarbakir.
Her body was found in a sack hidden under rocks in a nearby stream on Sept 8.
It was not clear how she was killed, but media reports said the autopsy revealed she had lesions on her neck.
Rare death of UN worker as Israel pursues West Bank operation
- The United Nations agency, UNRWA, said the employee was its first to be killed in the Palestinian territory in more than a decade
- UNRWA identified the employee as Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, who worked as a sanitation laborer
JERUSALEM: The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Friday one of its employees was killed during an Israeli operation in the occupied West Bank, where raids have escalated since last month.
The United Nations agency, UNRWA, said the employee was its first to be killed in the Palestinian territory in more than a decade.
But he is among dozens of Palestinians killed during the large-scale Israeli operation which began days ago and is ongoing, with several more Palestinians dead since Wednesday.
UNRWA identified the employee as Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, who worked as a sanitation laborer. It said he was “shot and killed on the roof of his home by a sniper” in Faraa refugee camp.
His death is in addition to those of six other UNRWA staffers the UN said were killed in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday during a strike on a shool-turned-shelter. It was the highest single incident toll for the agency, UNRWA said.
Mourners on Friday carried Jawwad’s body through the streets of Faraa, with his blue UN vest resting atop the Palestinian flag that covered him.
In nearby Tubas, funerals also took place for other Palestinians, who were killed by an air strike.
A military statement on Friday said Israeli forces had “conducted a 48-hour counter-terrorism operation” in the areas of Tubas, Tamun and Faraa — northeast of Nablus — killing “five armed terrorists” in an air strike.
It added that a sixth militant was also killed.
Violence in the West Bank had already soared alongside the nearly 12-month-old war in Gaza but in late August Israel began its large-scale raids.
Major Israeli operations in the West Bank are sometimes occurring “at a scale not witnessed in the last two decades,” the United Nations human rights chief said this week.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said the military withdrew from Tubas on Thursday evening, allowing the funerals there to go ahead, after the air strike which the Palestinian Red Crescent said killed them on Wednesday.
“I woke up in the morning to the sound of an explosion,” Ahmed Sawafta, father of one of the dead men, told AFP.
The fifth person killed was buried on Friday in Tamun, also in the northern West Bank.
Osaid Kharaz, who identified himself as a Hamas activist, told AFP at the funeral in Tubas that Israel “is attempting to impose a new reality and undermine the popular support for the resistance (to Israeli occupation) in the West Bank.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced on September 4 that the military would use its “full strength” to strike Palestinian militants in the West Bank.
He said he had ordered the military to carry out air strikes “wherever necessary” in order to “avoid endangering soldiers.”
Days later, the European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said Israel aimed “to turn the West Bank into a new Gaza.”
Israeli forces this week also carried out operations around the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem.
A military statement on Friday reported four deaths “in the areas of Tulkarem and Nur Shams.”
It said “three of the terrorists were eliminated in an aerial strike on Wednesday, and the fourth terrorist was eliminated during close-quarters combat with the security forces.”
The armed wing of Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said that the strike killed three of its fighters.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and has ramped up deadly raids in the territory since Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel sparked the war in Gaza.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, at least 679 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by the Israeli military or settlers since October 7.
At least 24 Israelis, including security forces, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in the territory during the same period, according to Israeli officials.
‘An eye for an eye’: Hezbollah targets two Israeli military bases in Safed
- Lebanon Humanitarian Fund allocates $10 million to aid displaced people in southern Lebanon
BEIRUT: Hezbollah launched a swarm of assault drones on Filon Base — the headquarters of Israel’s 210th Division — and its warehouses in the southeast of Safed on Friday, the second attack on Safed in less than 12 hours.
Hezbollah said it had “targeted the positions and locations of the base’s soldiers and officers, striking them directly.”
Israeli media outlets confirmed the attack, stating that “20 rockets were launched from Lebanon toward Safad.”
FASTFACT
UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon Imran Riza announced the allocation of $24 million as an aid package from the Lebanon Humanitarian Fund ‘to support the country’s most vulnerable groups.’
This came hours after Israeli raids on Friday morning that targeted several houses in Bint Jbeil, the largest city in the area of the Israel-Lebanon border. The impact of the explosions destroyed some residential buildings and caused damage to other structures.
The Israeli army also raided the outskirts of Yaroun and Aita Al-Shaab, with heavy artillery targeting the forests of Alma Al-Shaab and the outskirts of Kfarshouba.
Israeli forces also targeted two motorcycles in Nabatieh on Thursday night, killing three people, including a four-year-old child identified as Mehdi Mubarak, along with his father, Sadeq Mubarak from Markaba, and Sajed Mustafa, Hezbollah announced.
Hezbollah immediately responded by targeting a major air-defense base in Safad with dozens of Katyusha missiles, setting parts of it ablaze and leading to a complete power outage in Safad and nearby areas. Around 50,000 settlers fled to shelters after hearing the sound of sirens, according to Israeli media outlets.
European and US calls to prevent the expansion of war in Lebanon have yet to have any effect.
In his Friday sermon, the head of Hezbollah’s Shariah Council, Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek, said “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and the initiator is the aggressor.”
He added: “Hezbollah stands up to the Israeli enemy’s attacks, the monstrous and destructive bombing of houses, and killing of civilians, by launching rocket and drone operations against more settlements.”
Yazbek highlighted “the Israeli escalation,” and said that Hezbollah “is fully prepared to teach the enemy a lesson it hasn’t dreamed of, and won’t stop before the attack against Gaza stops.”
Israeli media outlets reported on Thursday night that the US presidential envoy to Lebanon and Israel, Amos Hochstein, will head to Israel with a message calling for it to avoid “carrying out an expanded military operation in Lebanon.”
The Lebanese authorities have yet to receive confirmation of whether Hochstein intends to visit Beirut.
According to Information International, the death toll from confrontations on the southern front between Oct. 8, 2023, and the morning of Sept. 13, 2024, was 626. Among them are 431 Hezbollah members and 97 civilians. A total of 2,050 homes have been completely destroyed, 1,800 homes have been partially destroyed, and around 8,000 homes have suffered minor damage, while more than 110,000 people have been displaced, with many losing their livelihoods.
Meanwhile, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon Imran Riza issued a statement announcing the allocation of $24 million as an aid package from the Lebanon Humanitarian Fund “to support the country’s most vulnerable groups, and address the needs of those affected by the escalating hostilities in southern Lebanon.”
Riza said: “As the escalation of hostilities in south Lebanon drags on longer than we had hoped, it has led to further displacement and deepened the already critical needs. The long-term consequences on vulnerable groups are particularly worrying — schools are closing, healthcare services are under strain, and basic services are being stretched thin.”
He continued: “We are allocating these funds from the LHF at a time of unprecedented challenges. Lebanon is grappling with multiple crises, which have overwhelmed the country’s capacity to cope. Despite our best efforts, only 25 percent of our annual appeal has been met. We urgently call on the international community for more support.
“The LHF has allowed us to support over 200,000 people, but this is still far from enough. Without sufficient funding, we are not only limited in addressing those immediate needs but also risk weakening our preparedness efforts and our capacity to address the other urgent crises Lebanon is currently facing.”
The LHF clarified that the new funding will “provide urgent support to those in need, including food, shelter, healthcare, WaSH and protection. Specifically, $10 million from the LHF will be directed toward emergency relief for those affected by the hostilities in south Lebanon. “Additionally, $13 million will be allocated to support vulnerable communities across Lebanon, and the remaining $1 million will be dedicated to empowering local NGOs, enhancing their ability to respond effectively to the multifaceted crisis.”
In November 2023, in response to the escalation of hostilities on Lebanon’s southern border, the LHF allocated $4.1 million to support advanced preparedness and immediate response efforts for those displaced and in need. This response was further bolstered in February, when the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund allocated an additional $9 million to address the urgent needs of vulnerable populations, particularly in southern Lebanon.
Israeli military says it acted against targets in Syria
- The Israeli military rarely comments on allegations that it acts in Syria
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said Friday that over the source of the week it had acted in Syria against targets, just days after Syrian state media reported Israeli airstrikes killed 16 people in western Syria and wounded dozens more.
“In southern Syria, the IDF targeted several terrorists who were advancing terror activities against Israel,” a statement from the military said Friday but did not give further detail.
The Israeli military rarely comments on allegations that it acts in Syria and declined to comment on a New York Times report that Israeli special forces raided a weapons manufacturing site near the Syria-Lebanon border on Sunday.
On Sunday, Syrian state news agency SANA reported that Israel launched the strikes on “a number of military sites in the central region,” without elaborating on what was struck.
Gaza polio vaccination drive a ‘massive success’: WHO
- Fresh campaign to provide a needed second dose is due to begin in about four weeks
- WHO had initially said it aimed to vaccinate some 640,000 children, but that had likely been an overestimate of the target population
GENEVA: The WHO chief has hailed the success of the first phase of a giant polio vaccination campaign in war-ravaged Gaza after more than 560,000 children received a first dose.
“This is a massive success amidst a tragic daily reality of life across the Gaza Strip,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X, formerly Twitter.
Disease has spread with Gaza lying in ruins and the majority of its 2.4 million residents forced to flee their homes due to Israel’s military assault — often taking refuge in cramped and unsanitary conditions.
After the first confirmed polio case in 25 years, a massive vaccination effort began on Sept. 1, targeting at least 90 percent of children under 10, aided by localized “humanitarian pauses” in fighting.
BACKGROUND
After the first confirmed polio case in 25 years, a massive vaccination effort began on Sept. 1, targeting at least 90 percent of children under 10.
The campaign’s first phase, which first brought vaccines to children in central Gaza, then the south, and finally to the hardest-to-reach north of the territory, wrapped up Thursday.
A fresh campaign to provide a needed second dose is due to begin in about four weeks in Gaza, besieged for over 11 months.
“We admire all the health teams who conducted this complex operation,” Tedros said, also voicing gratitude to the families for turning out in droves to vaccinate their children against polio.
Poliovirus is highly infectious, most often spread through sewage and contaminated water. It can cause deformities and paralysis and is potentially fatal.
It mainly affects children under the age of five.
WHO has hailed that area-specific humanitarian pauses were respected, allowing the campaign to go ahead, and has urged a broader halt in fighting to help establish humanitarian corridors and the delivery of desperately needed aid throughout the war-torn territory.
“Imagine what could be achieved with a ceasefire!” Tedros said.
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack. Israel’s retaliation has killed at least 41,118 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.
The UN human rights office says most of the dead have been women or children.
