Middle East updates: WHO says Gaza baby contracted polio

World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that a 10-month-old baby in the Gaza Strip had contracted polio.

"I am gravely concerned that a 10-month-old unvaccinated child from Deir al-Balah, #Gaza, has been confirmed to have polio," Tedros said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, adding that this was "the first case in Gaza in 25 years."

"The child, who developed paralysis in the lower left leg, is currently in a stable condition," he said.

He said that "[g]enomic sequencing confirmed the virus is linked to the variant poliovirus type 2 detected in environmental samples collected in June from Gaza's wastewater."

He said that the Palestinian Health Ministry, the WHO and the UN children's agency UNICEF would "implement two rounds of polio vaccination in the coming weeks to halt transmission."

The WHO said earlier this month that it would send 1 million polio vaccines to Gaza after the virus was detected in the territory's sewage. However, it and other international organizations have stressed the difficulty of distributing the vaccine without the establishment of a cease-fire.

The International Rescue Committee has said that the virus has circulated due to the destruction of hospitals and water infrastructure during Israel's offensive in the Palestinian territory.

The Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip, ongoing for over ten months now, have killed over 40,000 Palestinians, health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave say. 

Israel's military campaign began after the militant Hamas group attacked Israel on October 7 last year. The attack resulted in 1,200 deaths and militants also took around 250 people hostage. Just under half of the hostages were released during a temporary cease-fire last November. 

Hamas is designated as a terrorist group by Israel, the US, Germany and others.

sdi/rmt (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)

Israeli negotiators were in the Egyptian capital Cairo for talks on a cease-fire deal in Gaza, media reports suggested on Friday.

Israel's troop presence on Gaza's southern border with Egypt remains one of the main points of contention.

Mossad spy agency chief David Barnea and Shin Bet domestic security service chief Ronen Bar were in Cairo "negotiating to advance a hostage [release] agreement," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman Omer Dostri told the French AFP news agency.

Hamas official Hossam Badran told AFP that Netanyahu's insistence that Israeli troops remain on the Philadelphi border strip reflects the politician's "refusal to reach a final agreement."

Mediators Egypt, Qatar and the United States aim to reach a cease-fire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas.

German airline Lufthansa said it was extending a suspension of flights to the Lebanese capital Beirut up to and including September 30.

Flights to Tel Aviv, Israel and to Iranian capital Tehran will be suspended until September 2.

Previously suspended services to Jordan's capital Amman and the city of Erbil, which serves as the seat of government of northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, will resume on August 27.

Airlines had suspended flights to several Middle East destinations due to rising tensions between Israel and Iran related to the war in Gaza, as well as the risk of all-out war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group.