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Israel announces 'unprecedented' land seizure

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Anti-settlement group says move is “proof that Prime Minister Netanyahu does not aspire for a new ‘Diplomatic Horizon'”

An Israeli soldier looks on during a protest in the village of Al Ma'sara. (Photo: Kelleelund)

An Israeli soldier looks on during a protest in the village of Al Ma’sara. (Photo: kelleelund)

– by Andrea Germanos

Israel announced on Sunday it was seizing 988 acres of land in the West Bank, an amount described as ‘unprecedented’ by a peace organization.

The appropriation is reportedly in retaliation for the kidnapping of three Israeli teens in June.

According to reporting by Haaretz, “The appropriated land belongs to five Palestinian villages in the Bethlehem area: Jaba, Surif, Wadi Fukin, Husan and Nahalin.”

Ma’an News adds:

Part of the lands being confiscated are already home to the illegal Jewish settlement of Gvaot, part of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc.

Local settlers moved into the area and took over Palestinian land with military support more than a decade ago, but have been living in an area technically unrecognized by Israeli authorities despite their armed protection.

Anti-settlement group Peace Now called the land appropriation “unprecedented in its scope since the 1980’s.” A statement by the group continues:

Peace Now views this declaration as proof that Prime Minister Netanyahu does not aspire for a new ‘Diplomatic Horizon’ but rather, he continues to put obstacles to the two state vision and promote a one state solution. Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ya’alon are directly responsible to the declaration, which cannot pass without their approval. By declaring another 4,000 dunams [988 acres] as state land, the Israeli government stabs President Abbas and the moderate Palestinian forces in the back, proving again that violent delivers Israeli concessions while nonviolence results in settlement expansion.

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Syria becomes the 7th predominantly Muslim country bombed by 2009 Nobel Peace Laureate

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Barack Obama makes a speech during the Nobel Peace Prize Concert at Oslo Spektrum on December 11, 2009 in Oslo, Norway Photo: Sandy Young/Getty Images

Barack Obama makes a speech during the Nobel Peace Prize Concert at Oslo Spektrum on December 11, 2009 in Oslo, Norway Photo: Sandy Young/Getty Images

– by Glenn Greenwald

The U.S. today began bombing targets inside Syria, in concert with its lovely and inspiring group of five allied regimes: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Jordan.

That means that Syria becomes the 7th predominantly Muslim country bombed by 2009 Nobel Peace Laureate Barack Obama—after Afghanistan, Pakistan,Yemen, Somalia, Libya and Iraq.

The utter lack of interest in what possible legal authority Obama has to bomb Syria is telling indeed: Empires bomb who they want, when they want, for whatever reason (indeed, recall that Obama bombed Libya even after Congress explicitly voted against authorization to use force, and very few people seemed to mind that abject act of lawlessness; constitutional constraints are not for warriors and emperors).

It was just over a year ago that Obama officials were insisting that bombing and attacking Assad was a moral and strategic imperative. Instead, Obama is now bombing Assad’s enemies while politely informing his regime of its targets in advance. It seems irrelevant on whom the U.S. wages war; what matters it that it be at war, always and forever.

Six weeks of bombing hasn’t budged ISIS in Iraq, but it has caused ISIS recruitment to soar. That’s all predictable: the U.S. has known for years that what fuels and strengthens anti-American sentiment (and thus anti-American extremism) is exactly what they keep doing: aggression in that region. If you know that, then they know that. At this point, it’s more rational to say they do all of this not despite triggering those outcomes, but because of it. Continuously creating and strengthening enemies is a feature, not a bug. It is what justifies the ongoing greasing of the profitable and power-vesting machine of Endless War.

If there is anyone who actually believes that the point of all of this is a moral crusade to vanquish the evil-doers of ISIS (as the U.S. fights alongside its close Saudi friends), please read Professor As’ad AbuKhalil’s explanation today of how Syria is a multi-tiered proxy war. As the disastrous Libya “intervention” should conclusively and permanently demonstrate, the U.S. does not bomb countries for humanitarian objectives. Humanitarianism is the pretense, not the purpose.

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8 civilians, including 3 children, killed in US-led strikes on Syria

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People inspect a shop damaged after what Islamist State militants say was a U.S. drone crashed into a communication station nearby in Raqqa September 23, 2014. (Reuters/Stringer)

People inspect a shop damaged after what Islamist State militants say was a U.S. drone crashed into a communication station nearby in Raqqa September 23, 2014. (Reuters/Stringer)

– by RT

Eight civilians, three of them children, have been killed in the US-led air strikes on Al-Qaeda Nusra front positions, Reuters reported, citing Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Washington carried a series of airstrikes on the city of Raqqa in the early hours of Tuesday. At least 30 militants died in the strikes, which were carried out on IS positions in Syria. Washington informed Damascus about the operation, according to a representative of Syrian Foreign Ministry.

“There is an exodus out of Raqqa as we speak. It started in the early hours of the day after the strikes. People are fleeing towards the countryside,” one local resident told Reuters.

The strikes targeted residential buildings in Aleppo allegedly used by Al-Nusra Front, according to Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The US-led coalition’s targets also included training camps, headquarters and weapon supplies in northern and eastern Syria, with many IS locations “destroyed or damaged” around the cities of Raqqa, Deir al-Zor, Hasakah and the border town of Albu Kamal, Reuters reported.

In particular, “[Islamic State] fighters, training compounds, headquarters and command and control facilities, storage facilities, a finance center, supply trucks and armed vehicles” were hit.

Raqqa (Al-Raqqa) is a city with a population of over 200,000 people, and is strategically located just 40km east of the largest Syrian dam. Raqqa is believed to be the IS headquarters.

Source

Egypt evicts Rafah residents to create buffer zone

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Egyptian soldiers stand guard on a mosque's minaret in the Egyptian city of Rafah, Sept. 8, 2013. (Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)

Egyptian soldiers stand guard on a mosque’s minaret in the Egyptian city of Rafah, Sept. 8, 2013. (Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)

– by Al-Monitor

Rafah, Egypt: Concern has spread among residents of the border areas in the northern Sinai Peninsula following the Egyptian army’s planned establishment of a buffer zone on the Egyptian side of Rafah along the border with the Gaza Strip.

The undeclared move prompted local concern that a new reality is being secretly shaped, and that the government has adopted a policy of strategic patience to draw the map of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the expense of the people in Sinai.

The Egyptian army has stated its military operations in Sinai are part of the war on terrorism, yet residents believe the operations are designed to forcibly displace them.

Informed authority sources told Al-Monitor that the army’s plan to establish a buffer zone will take two years to implement and will necessitate the razing of homes located about a kilometer (0.6 miles) inside the Rafah border. The plan also necessitates building a large barrier equipped with surveillance cameras and lights, and deploying ground sensors to abort any Palestinian attempts to dig tunnels or smuggle arms.

An official source explained that several countries seek to achieve stability in the area and will help the Egyptian authorities fund the project. The source refused to name these countries.

On the reasons behind the establishment of the buffer zone, the source said, “Every country has the right to preserve its borders as it deems fit. No country in the world accepts that its rights be violated the way they are violated on the border with the Gaza Strip.”

The source said that homes will be razed to empty the area in preparation for the so-called protection of the national security project. He said the government, not the army, is the authority designated to compensate residents and talk about whether their rights are legitimate.

The source added, “The establishment of a buffer zone on the border is of absolute necessity to preserve Egyptian national security, particularly with the growing plans to export the Palestinian cause to Egyptian territory, away from its natural context. Thus, we cannot be emotional while thinking of the [population] displacement issue.”

A source who is a member of the Sawarka tribe and close to Sinai authorities told Al-Monitor that the border operations — namely, the demolition of houses — are designed to control the area where Hamas is promoting its influence through the tunnels.

Rafah resident Um Ibrahim told Al-Monitor how her family’s house on the Gaza border was blown up. “The army blew up our house, claiming there were tunnels. This is totally untrue. We told them, ‘If there are indeed tunnels, blow us up with the house.’ The officer replied, ‘Relax, all of the houses in [the Egyptian side of] Rafah will be destroyed and razed. Forget about this area and find yourself another place to live in. This is about Egypt’s national security,’” she said.

Um Ibrahim added, “If the area will be used to preserve the security of Egypt, we demand the government provide us a place to live.”

According to residents of the border area, the attempts to displace them began when Hamas came to power in the Gaza Strip. In 2009, ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak attempted to build a separation barrier made of steel in the highly populated border area. Other attempts were made to dig a 10-kilometer (6-mile) stream of water along the Gaza border.

At the time, Egyptian authorities said the steel barrier was designed to preserve national security and halt smuggling operations through the tunnels. Mubarak’s buffer zone was never completed following local objections broadcast in the Egyptian media, the escalation in the Gaza Strip and Palestinian portrayal of the issue as an Egyptian attempt to tighten the siege on Gaza.

Residents of the Egyptian side of Rafah said that drilling equipment shakes the ground and further cracks the foundations of their houses. Beneath the houses are tunnels, which further weaken the ground, according to Mohammed al-Barahimeh, who lives just a few meters from the border.

He told Al-Monitor, “Since 2009, the successive Egyptian authorities have tried to create a buffer zone between Egypt and Gaza at our expense and without compensation and without even providing us another place to live.”

Barahimeh said, “Mubarak failed to displace us, as we managed to express our real suffering to the public. But today, harsh plans are being implemented to displace us, while the Egyptian public opinion is being deluded with the pretext of the war on terrorism. The Egyptian people believe that the army’s actions are part of the war on terrorism.”

Authorities under Mubarak were not the only ones working to displace border residents. The Sinai residents were shocked when the Ministry of Defense under the rule of ousted President Mohammed Morsi passed a December 2012 decision, Decree No. 203, prohibiting the right to own, rent or build property located within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of the border. Sinai residents largely rejected the decision, viewing it as an attempt to halt life in the area, according to local resident Mohammed al-Manei.

Manei told Al-Monitor that it has become more difficult to stand against the army’s decisions. The army has chosen the right time to build the buffer zone. Public opinion has been mobilized against Rafah, the tunnels and Gaza, with the army linking them to the war on terrorism.

Sinai novelist Massaad Abu-Fajr told Al-Monitor, “The Egyptian government is fighting to preserve its violated border in a different way. Yet, we need to exert pressure on it to develop its means. As for the reason why the people of Sinai are paying the price, some of them did not declare their clear rejection of Hamas.”

He added, “Everything that is taking place in Sinai is the consequence of Hamas keeping its grip over the Gaza Strip, turning Sinai into a corridor for smuggling and a reservoir to store missiles and weapons. The movement is working to expel the state from Sinai by turning our children into smugglers and terrorists, and using Sinai as a place to keep criminal groups out of Gaza.”

If Hamas is ousted, said Abu-Fajr, half of Sinai’s problems will be solved.

With the aggravation of the political situation between the Egyptian and Palestinian sides, the people of Sinai remain victims until further notice.

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Anti-Islam ad campaign to run on New York City buses and subways

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Blogger paid $100,000 to place ads, one of which was rejected by MTA on grounds it could ‘incite or provoke violence.’

Geller’s posters will appear on a hundred MTA buses across New York.

Geller’s posters will appear on a hundred MTA buses across New York.

– by Nicky Woolf

Controversial blogger and activist Pamela Geller has paid $100,000 to place advertisements on New York City buses and in subway stations that feature anti-Islamic messages and images including one of James Foley, the American journalist beheaded by Isis in August.

The campaign, which is being funded by Geller’s advocacy group, the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AMDI), features six posters including the one that features Foley. All the posters carry messages critical of Islam. One features a picture of Adolf Hitler.

This is not the first time Geller’s organisation has used posters on New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority’s ad space to court controversy. In 2012, her organisation paid for posters to appear in ten New York subway stations.

This time around the posters, which include some Geller used in 2012 and some new designs, will be only in two subway stations, but will also appear on a hundred MTA buses. They are scheduled to appear on 29 September.

In 2012, after the MTA at first did not allow Geller to buy advertising space, a court ruled that the posters were “political” in nature, and therefore covered by the First Amendment. “We review every viewpoint ad,” said Kevin Ortiz, deputy director of external communications at the MTA “but a series of court rulings have made clear that our hands are largely tied.”

Mona Eltahawy, the Egyptian-American activist and writer, was charged with “criminal mischief” after spray-painting over the posters. Four other people were also reportedly arrested for defacing the posters with stickers.

Linda Sarsour, the executive director of the Arab-American Association of New York said that she fully respected Geller’s right to exercise her free speech, but pointed to the fact that anti-Muslim hate crimes are up 143% since last year, according to figures released on Thursday by the NYPD’s hate crimes task force. Sarsour was herself the target of a hate crime this September, after a man chased and threatened to behead her in New York.

“The question here is what could be the consequences of these ads going up at a time like this,” Sarsour said. “We have ignorant people walking around who are waiting to act on their hatred for Muslims. We don’t need ads across New York City that try to link Islam and Isis.”

Since the controversy surrounding Geller’s last poster campaign, the MTA has revised its standards regarding advertising. Now, any ad that contains a political viewpoint must display the words “this is a paid advertisement sponsored by [sponsor]. The display of this advertisement does not imply MTA’s endorsement of any views expressed.”

Evan Bernstein, the regional director of the ADL in New York said: “Pamela Geller frequently crosses the line into racism when she criticizes Islam. In this particular case with the ads on New York City buses, it does not appear that she has done so.”

The MTA announced on Friday that a fifth poster, also submitted by Geller’s organisation, was rejected by their safety and security director because they feared it had the potential to “imminently incite or provoke violence,” according to a statement. Under the new rules put in place after Geller’s 2012 campaign, that is sufficient grounds for the MTA to refuse to run an ad.

Adam Lisberg, the head spokesperson for the MTA, denied that any value judgments were involved. “We make these decisions in a content-neutral way,” he told the Guardian. “We have narrowly drafted our advertising standards because of the First Amendment considerations involved.

He said the MTA was not yet aware of a legal challenge from Geller.

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How UN’s Ban Ki-moon and Oxfam undermine Palestinian right to resist

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palestine-resist

– by Ali Abunimah

Earlier this month, as Israeli massacres claimed dozens of lives every day and night in Gaza, 129 Palestinian and international organizations sent an open letter condemning UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s role as a partner in Israel’s crimes.

They criticized his “biased statements,” his “failure to act, and the inappropriate justification of Israel’s violations of international humanitarian law, which amount to war crimes.”

They called on him to “stand for law and justice or resign.”

Sadly, the message did not get through. Yesterday, following the ceasefire deal between the Palestinian resistance and Israel, Ban issued a new statement welcoming the ceasefire.

“After this latest round of killing and the further widespread destruction of Palestinian homes, civilians on both sides need a reprieve in order to resume their daily lives, and to allow for humanitarian and early recovery efforts to address the desperate needs of the people in Gaza,” Ban said.

But Ban continued (emphasis added):

Any peace effort that does not tackle the root causes of the crisis will do little more than set the stage for the next cycle of violence. Gaza must be brought back under one legitimate Palestinian Government adhering to the PLO [Palestine Liberation Organization] commitments; the blockade of Gaza must end; Israel’slegitimate security concerns must be addressed. The United Nations stands ready to support efforts to address the structural factors of conflict between Israel and Gaza.

The Secretary-General remains hopeful that the extended ceasefire will act as a prelude to a political process as the only way of achieving durable peace. The two-state solution is the only viable option. The Secretary-General urgently calls on both parties to return to meaningful negotiations towards a final status agreement that addresses all core issues and ends the 47-year occupation.

It is not up to Ban to dictate internal political arrangements to Palestinians, but what concerns me is his insistence that any Palestinian “government” must adhere to “PLO commitments.”

What he means is that it must adhere to the so-called “Quartet principles” dictated by the United States in 2006 after Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections.

These require Palestinians to “be committed to nonviolence, recognition of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements and obligations, including the Road Map.”

What this meant at the time and means in the present context is that Palestinians must unilaterally accept Israel’s political demands and renounce resistance and self-defense.

It is simply obscene for Ban to demand this, especially after the latest Israeli war crimes and atrocities that some international experts say rise to the level of genocide.

It would be one thing if Ban were even-handed and demand that Israel also renounce violence, but he does not do so. Instead he makes a nod to Israel’s “legitimate security concerns” as if it were not the Palestinians who have actually faced apocalyptic destruction – the equivalent of an atomic bomb dropped on Gaza – at the hands of Israel.

It is also notable that Ban utters not a single word about Palestinian rights. Instead he uses the vague and deceptive formula of a “final status agreement that addresses all core issues and ends the 47-year occupation.”

This may be news to Ban, but eighty percent of Gaza’s residents are refugees. Yes, they are resisting to end Israel’s 47-year occupation. But they are also demanding an end to their 66-year exile from their homes in present-day Israel. Their right of return cannot be trumped by Israel’s racist demand to be recognized as a “Jewish state.”

Oxfam backs Israel’s right to kill Palestinians

Sadly, this unbalanced thinking, in which the aggressor and occupier’s right to use violence against its victims is sacred, and in which the victims must be disarmed, is not unique to the UN.

I was also disturbed to read a paper from the international development agency Oxfam which effectively endorses Israel’s right to kill Palestinians under certain circumstances, while denying Palestinians any right to resist (“Cease Failure: Rethinking seven years of failing policies in Gaza”).

The paper contains some useful suggestions to be sure, but apparently offers Israel advice on when it can kill its Palestinian victims in its self-declared buffer zones in the Gaza Strip and off Gaza’s coast (emphasis added):

Israeli activity is currently conducted under the laws of armed conflict, which allow for the legal use of deadly force under an extensive range of circumstances. A more appropriate approach is the law enforcement model, which would limit the legal use of deadly force to extreme circumstances, and only when all other non-lethal measures have proven insufficient.

While offering the Israeli occupation tips on when and how to kill Palestinians whose land it is occupying, Oxfam advises that Palestinians should be denied any means to self-defense and resistance.

It calls for “adequate inspection of the border between Egypt and Gaza to eliminate the smuggling of illegal weapons” but without describing any means by which Palestinians could legally obtain weapons to defend themselves.

Oxfam reaffirms its opposition to any Palestinian right to self-defense and resistance by demanding that a future “Palestinian government” be held “accountable to the current Quartet principles (renunciation of violence, acceptance of previous agreements signed by the PLO, and recognition of the State of Israel).”

This is simply astonishing. Oxfam should not give the occupier advice on how to occupy and how to refine its apparatus of siege, oppression and murder.

Instead, Oxfam should restrict itself to demanding that Palestinian rights, all Palestinian rights, be enforced and that Israeli individuals and the Israeli entity be held accountable for their atrocities in Gaza.

Let’s remember that Palestinian resistance would be unnecessary in the first place if the so-called “international community” – the US, EU and their client regimes – had not been arming, financing and supporting Israeli occupation, ethnic cleansing and colonization for all these decades.

Palestinians should no longer accept such language or demands from those who purport to support their struggle.

Source

No change to Gaza blockade since ceasefire

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The Kerem Shalom cargo terminal.

The Kerem Shalom cargo terminal.

Gaza: There have been no changes to restrictions on Gaza’s crossings since a ceasefire agreement went into effect at the end of August, a Palestinian official said Wednesday.

Maher al-Tabba, director of public and media relations at Gaza’s chamber of commerce, said the Kerem Shalom operates with the same restrictions as before Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.

Around 3,700 trucks have entered the besieged enclave between Aug. 28 and Sept. 15, almost a third of which were aid trucks.

Over 1,400 tons of cement entered Gaza between Sept. 2 – 15 to be used in internationally funded projects initiated before the conflict.

Unemployment rates are expected to surpass 55 percent in the near future, al-Tabba added.

In early September, Maria Jose Torres, deputy head of office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory branch of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said no changes had been made at the Erez or Kerem Shalom crossings.

“We were expecting that the agreement of the ceasefire would have some kind of timeline for easing and lifting the blockade but so far we have nothing publicly. There might be something we are not aware of,” she added.

Following weeks of Egyptian-brokered negotiations, Israel and Hamas agreed to halt their fire in Gaza on Aug. 26 after 50 days, their deadliest confrontation in years.

The indirect talks are set to resume mid-September to discuss longer-term issues.

Ma’an

UAE: Entire soccer team converts to Islam due to its peace and kindness

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Cameroon-Football-Islam

Dubai: An entire football team of young Cameroonian football players have declared their conversion to Islam after spending two months at a football training camp in the United Arab Emirates.

A total of twenty-three players in their twenties who came as part of a program run by a football academy for poor, homeless and orphaned youngsters in Cameroon, openly read out their testimony of faith at the Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department (IACAD) in Dubai.

Javeed Khateeb, senior religious adviser at IACAD, told The National, “It is amazing that at an age when most people just want to play and have fun, these young men were searching for faith and enlightenment.”

It was reported that the players and coaches decided to accept Islam for various reasons, including the peace they felt in the religion and the kindness of Muslims they came across during their stay in the country.

“They were very impressed with the way Muslims behaved, but mostly they were impressed by the kindness and respect they received. These are poor young men and they were embraced like brothers,” Khateeb said.

“We spent two separate sessions, which were about a full day each, talking about Islam and answering all their questions and alleviating any doubts,” Khateeb added.

“We wanted to make sure they had proper understanding of Islam. Many of their questions were about halal and haram, consuming alcohol, and how the prophet Jesus is portrayed in Islam.”

All but two visiting footballers decided to convert to Islam during their visit to IACAD on Thursday before returning to Cameroon on Saturday, although the remaining two players asked for more information before they made up their minds, Khateeb said.

World Bulletin

ISIS releases video of captive British photojournalist

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John Cantlie

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group released a video Thursday of a British freelance photojournalist, John Cantlie, in which he says he is being held captive.

In the video posted on YouTube, Cantlie, wearing an orange jumpsuit, speaks to the camera in the style of a news report and promises to reveal in a series of programs the “truth” about the jihadist group that has seized parts of Iraq and Syria.

There was no immediate threat to his life apparent in the video.

Cantlie, who had contributed to British newspapers including The Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph, as well as to Agence France-Presse, said he was captured after travelling to Syria in November 2012.

He had previously been detained along with a Dutch photographer by extremists in Syria in July 2012 but was reportedly released after nine days.

It was not clear when the video was shot, but in it Cantlie referred to recent events including ISIS taking control of large parts of Iraq in June.

Speaking in English with Arabic subtitles, Cantlie says in the 3:21-minute video — titled “Lend Me Your Ears” — that he plans to reveal “the truth behind the systems and motivation of the Islamic State”.

(AFP)

Syria: 36 children die after receiving 'UN-sponsored contaminated Measles vaccine'

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A widespread vaccination programme is taking place in Syrian refugee camps(Reuters)

A widespread vaccination programme is taking place in Syrian refugee camps(Reuters)

– by Ludovica Iaccino, International Business Times

At least 36 children have died after they received UN-sponsored tainted measles vaccines, according to reports.

Doctors of the clinics in rebel-held towns Jirjanaz and Maaret al-Nouman, in the north-western province of Idlib, said the children started feeling ill shortly after they received the vaccinations.

Parents accused the Syrian opposition – which controls Idlib – of negligence when storing thevaccines and of supplying out-of-date medications.

The Syrian opposition, however, denied the allegations and said the vaccines came from the UN and the World Health Organization (WHO), and could have been contaminated by people close to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.

“Primary investigations point to a limited security breach by vandals likely connected to the regime, which has been attempting to target the medical sector in Free Syria in order to spread chaos,” the opposition health ministry said in a statement.

Bashar Kayal, a health official, told Radio Hawa Smart, “The symptoms don’t just indicate spoiledvaccines – it suggests they’ve been contaminated.”

The vaccination programme was stopped immediately after the incident and blood samples have been sent to Turkey for further examinations.

Health minister Adnan Hazouri vowed to resign if an investigation on the children’s deaths upheld allegations of negligence.

Monther Khalil, head of the medical department in Idib, reassured the parents of children who have already been injected that they are out of danger.

“The vaccine is completely fine and there is no risk to children who have already been injected.

“We have already vaccinated 60,000 children against measles and there has been no previous problem. The same crews also previously carried out a polio campaign, where they vaccinated 252,000 children across seven rounds, and there were no abnormal complications.”

Idlib is held by moderate rebels opposed to Assad and to terror group Islamic State – formerly known as Isis.

The province was subjected to a fierce military campaign in 2014, after which rebels re-gained control of the area.

Last October, the UN announced that “millions of Syrian children” were to be vaccinated against measles, polio, mumps and rubella.

Due to the civil war, at least 200,000 children have not received vaccinations in Syria where, prior to the conflict, the rate of vaccination was of 95%.

Syria’s civil war, erupted in 2011, has caused more than 190,000 deaths and 6.5 million displaced people, many of whom are in need of urgent medical care.

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