The dire conditions in Gaza could be a hotbed for disese’s that have disappeared around the planet….
Like Covid….
A breakout of polio could spread world wide if not dealt with arer the source …
Could the ‘pause’ be a avenue for more ‘pauses’?
Biden Admin is still projecting progress on a possible cease-fire with Hostage and POW/exchange’s….
Israel is still hunting those who have led attacks aginst it….
Israel has been under intense pressure from world heath authorities to address the emergence of polio in Gaza, particularly after the first case of the disease in the area in 25 years was confirmed earlier this month, prompting U.N. Secretary General António Guterres to call for a temporary two-week truce for vaccinations.
The W.H.O. has secured 1.26 million doses of vaccines from Indonesia to protect recipients from poliovirus type-2, which arrived in Gaza this week, days after the W.H.O. announced that a 10-month-old boy was diagnosed with that strain of the disease in Gaza.
Type 2 polio was eradicated in most parts of the world in the 1990s, but aid officials have said that the severely unsanitary conditions in Gaza during Israel’s 10-month war against Hamas, combined with deteriorating health services, have created an environment in which even rare diseases can spread.
The vast majority of children in Gaza — as many as 95 percent — have been vaccinated for two other kinds of polio that are part of routine immunizations around the world, officials said….
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Relatives of Israeli hostages rushed toward the Gaza border on Thursday before turning back at the request of Israeli security forces, a group representing the families said in a statement. In their latest high-profile protest demanding a cease-fire deal, hostages’ family members stood near the border and used loudspeakers to call out to their loved ones being held in Gaza, before some in the group “broke through the fence” and ran toward the border “in a desperate attempt to get as close as possible to their relatives,” said the statement from the Hostages Families Forum. The Israeli government says that 107 hostages abducted during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks are still being held in Gaza after Israeli soldiers rescued one captive this week.
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Negotiators working on a cease-fire deal in Gaza are “bearing down on the details,” said President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, describing tentative progress in the monthslong talks. Speaking to reporters in Beijing at the end of an official visit, Mr. Sullivan said Thursday that the mediators “have advanced the discussions to a point where it’s in the nitty-gritty, and that is a positive sign of progress, but at the end of the day, nothing is done until it is done.” Officials from the United States, Egypt and Qatar have been holding meetings in Cairo to discuss details of a Biden administration proposal to bridge the gaps between Israel and Hamas….
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The State Department official said that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during a meeting with Netanyahu in Israel last week, had made a “major push” to make arrangements for the safe implementation of a vaccination campaign after international health officials confirmed a case of the polio virus in Gaza, where vaccinations and other health care have been severely disrupted since the war between Israel and Hamas began in early October….