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Health official says polio vaccine campaign begins in war-torn Gaza

A health official said a polio vaccination campaign began in Gaza on Saturday, while an aid worker said a large-scale rollout would begin on Sunday, coinciding with a "humanitarian pause" agreed by Israel and Hamas.

The vaccination drive was announced after Gaza recorded its first polio case in a quarter of a century earlier this month.

Local health officials along with the UN and NGOs "are starting today the polio vaccination campaign", Moussa Abed, director of primary health care at the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, told AFP on Saturday.

A nurse administers polio vaccine drops to a Palestinian child at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis on August 31, 2024

Israel set for general strike after Gaza hostages found dead

Israel's main union on Sunday ordered a nationwide general strike after soldiers recovered the bodies of six killed hostages from the Gaza Strip where the military is battling Palestinian militants.

In the evening, tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in the streets of Tel Aviv and other cities to protest the government and call for a hostage release deal.

The bodies of the six hostages were recovered Saturday "from an underground tunnel in the Rafah area" in southern Gaza, the military said.

Israeli hostages (clockwork from top-L) Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, Carmel Gat, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi and Hersh Goldberg-Polin

Israeli tennis Paralympian Berdichevsky happy to bring cheer to October 7 survivors

Israeli Adam Berdichevsky and his family survived the October 7 Hamas attack and on Friday they and other survivors from their kibbutz watched as he won an emotional opening singles tennis match at the Paralympics in Paris.

"I'm very happy that I could give some good times in these bad days," the 40-year-old said after beating Italy's Luca Arca 6-2, 7-5 in front of around 6,000 spectators on the Suzanne Lenglen court at Roland Garros.

Adam Berdichevsky (R) said he was happy to give his family and other survivors in their kibbutz of the Hamas October 7 attacks something to smile about after winning his opening Paralympics tennis match

'We are another Gaza': Palestinians in shock after West Bank raid

Palestinian residents of the Israeli-occupied West Bank expressed shock and despair Friday at the outcome of an Israeli raid on their refugee camp: bullet-riddled walls, destroyed homes and piles of concrete blocks.

"We are another Gaza, especially in the refugee camps," said Nayef Alaajmeh, a resident of the Nur Shams camp in the city of Tulkarem, as he surveyed the damage following a devastating Israeli raid on the camp that ended late on Thursday.

A Palestinian woman stands in the doorway of her house along a street following an Israeli raid on the the Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarem in the occupied-West Bank

UN aid official questions world's 'humanity' as Gaza war rages

A top UN aid official on Thursday questioned "what has become of our basic humanity," as the war in Gaza rages and humanitarian operations struggle to respond.

Joyce Msuya, acting head of the UN's humanitarian office (OCHA), said that "we cannot plan more than 24 hours in advance because we struggle to know what supplies we will have, when we will have them or where we will be able to deliver."

"Civilians are hungry. They are thirsty. They are sick. They are homeless. They have been pushed beyond... what any human being should bear," she told the Security Council.

A Palestinian man who returned to Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip to check on his home sits atop items salvaged amid the devastation

Yemen's Huthis blew up stranded oil tanker: video

Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels announced Thursday they had booby-trapped and detonated the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion, stranded in the Red Sea after a drone and missile attack earlier this month.

The group's leader said the operation took place earlier this week. Since then, the rebels have agreed to allow rescue teams to access the ship.

A video shared on the rebels' media outlets showed masked men planting explosives on the vessel and then detonating them, causing several fires on board.

This picture released on by Yemen's Huthi Ansarullah Media Centre shows fireballs and smoke aboard the oil tanker Sounion

Monkey monikers: Like humans, marmosets give each other names

Naming others is considered a marker of highly advanced cognition in social animals, previously observed only in humans, bottlenose dolphins and African elephants.

Marmoset monkeys have now joined this exclusive club, according to a new study published in Science on Thursday.

The diminutive primates use loud, high-pitched calls to assign each other "vocal labels," as shown in research conducted by a team at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Pygmy marmoset cubs are pictured with their mother in their enclosure at the Mulhouse Zoo, eastern France

Israel agrees 'humanitarian pauses' in Gaza for polio vaccinations

Israel has agreed to a series of three-day "humanitarian pauses" in Gaza to allow health officials to administer polio vaccinations to children in the territory, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

"The way we discussed and agreed, the campaign will start on the first of September, in central Gaza, for three days, and there will be a humanitarian pause during the vaccination," said Rik Peeperkorn, the agency's representative for Palestinian territories.

More than 640,000 children under the age of 10 are to be vaccinated in Gaza, according to the World Health Organization

IAEA chief hopes to meet Iran's new president soon to kickstart dialogue

The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog hopes to visit Iran soon for talks with newly-elected Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, according to a confidential report seen by AFP on Thursday.

Tensions between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have repeatedly flared since a 2015 deal curbing Tehran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanction relief fell apart.

In recent years, Tehran has decreased its cooperation with the IAEA by deactivating surveillance devices needed to monitor the nuclear programme, and barred UN inspectors.

Grossi last visited Iran in May, in a bid to improve cooperation with Tehran, which was at a level he described at the time as "completely unsatisfactory"

War-damaged souks reopen in Syria's Aleppo

Four historic souks in northern Syria's Aleppo, heavily damaged during some of the most intense fighting of the 13-year civil war, reopened this week following their restoration.

"After I reopened my old shop, following the renovation of the market, I felt my spirit return with it," said merchant Omar al-Rawwas, 45, who inherited his family's carpet business at the revived Saqtiya 2 souk.

People walk along an alley during the reopening of restored bazaars that were damaged during the Syrian conflict in the northern city of Aleppo