Illustrative. A series of powerful explosions shook Beirut on Friday (September 27) and thick clouds of smoke rose over the city, Reuters witnesses said, in what Lebanese media said were a series of Israeli airstrikes on the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of the city.

The Israeli military said on Saturday it had killed a commander of Hezbollah’s Nasser Brigade rocket unit in southern Lebanon, and that he had been responsible for several attacks on Israel.

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Israeli Air Force F-15 fighter jets escort a US Air Force B-52 bomber through Israeli airspace on March 7, 2021. Photo: IDF Twitter.

The United States said on Friday it will deploy B-52 bombers, fighter jets, refueling aircraft and Navy destroyers to the Middle East, in a readjustment of military assets as the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group prepares to leave the region.

The Pentagon said in a statement that deployments would take place in the coming months and demonstrated the flexibility of the U.S. military movements around the world.

“Should Iran, its partners, or its proxies use this moment to target American personnel or interests in the region, the United States will take every measure necessary to defend our people,” Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder said in a statement.

The United States has had as many as two aircraft carriers in the Middle East during the past year of soaring tensions since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Oct. 2023.

The Lincoln’s withdrawal will create an aircraft carrier gap until another is cycled into the Middle East.

The latest adjustment in US forces in the region follows direct exchanges of fire in October between Israel and Iran. Israel is also fighting Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and has carried out strikes in Yemen after coming under attack from Iran-aligned Houthi terrorists.

The United States has pledged to help defend Israel against attack and to safeguard US forces in the Middle East, who have been attacked by Iran-backed groups in Syria, Iraq, Jordan and off the coast of Yemen.

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Palestinian child is vaccinated against polio during the second round of a vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, October 14, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo

The third phase of a delayed polio vaccination campaign in Gaza will begin on Saturday, aid organizations said on Friday.

The polio campaign began on Sept. 1 after the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed in August that a baby was partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.

The humanitarian pause to conduct the campaign had been agreed but WHO and the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF said the area covered by the agreement had been substantially reduced from the previous pause in September, and would now cover only Gaza City.

The final phase of the campaign had aimed to reach an estimated 119,000 children under 10 years old in northern Gaza with a second dose of novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2). However, achieving this target is now unlikely due to access constraints, the statement said.

COGAT, the Israeli army’s Palestinian civilian affairs agency, said it was helping to coordinate the three-day campaign and once it was complete, there would be an assessment to decide whether the schedule would be extended.

“This coordination will ensure that the population can safely reach medical centers where the vaccines will be administered,” it said in a statement.

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