JERUSALEM — The U.N. children’s agency says a polio vaccination campaign in Gaza reached 189,000 children, surpassing its target and providing a “rare bright spot” in nearly 11 months of war.

UNICEF said Wednesday that more than 500 teams deployed across central Gaza this week, administering the vaccine to children under 10.

It said Israel and Hamas observed limited pauses in the fighting to facilitate the campaign. U.N. agencies now hope to expand the campaign to the harder-hit north and south of the territory. They hope to vaccinate a total of 640,000 children.

The campaign was launched after Gaza had its first reported polio case in 25 years — a 10-month-old boy, now paralyzed in the leg.

Health experts have warned of disease outbreaks in the territory, where the vast majority of people have been displaced, often multiple times, and where hunger is widespread.

Hundreds of thousands of people are crammed into squalid tent camps with few if any public services as Israel continues into offensive, which has killed more than 40,800 people in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people.

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Hostages’ Families Demand Netanyahu Stop Wearing Yellow Pin

A group representing families of the hostages held in Gaza demanded Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stop wearing a yellow pin, a global symbol of solidarity with the hostages.

“Stop creating a false impression of support and of striving to bring back the hostages when in reality you are doing everything to torpedo the deal,” the group, the Hostages and Missing Families forum, said in a statement.

The demand comes as protests rock Israel over the recent recovery of six young hostages from Gaza, who the military says were shot by their Hamas captors as Israeli forces closed in on the tunnel in which they were held.

The news has escalated calls for Netanyahu to immediately agree to a deal that would free some of the hostages remaining in the strip in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and a pause in combat. Netanyahu wants to maintain the presence of Israeli troops along a key corridor inside Gaza, a demand that Hamas has refused and the families of the hostages say is derailing negotiations.

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Israeli Shelling Kills Woman in Southern Lebanon

BEIRUT — Israeli shelling Wednesday in southern Lebanon killed a woman and wounded two others, including a 12-year-old child, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.

The ministry did not disclose details about the second person wounded in the southeastern town of Qabrikha.

The Health Ministry also said two people in Khiam and three others in Houla were wounded following Israeli attacks over the southern towns.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah also announced six rocket and artillery attacks on military positions in northern Israel.

German Foreign Minister Calls for Cease-Fire Deal

BERLIN – Germany, a close ally of Israel, says a cease-fire agreement with Hamas must have the “highest priority.” The foreign minister is expected to underline the message on a trip to the Middle East this week.

Government spokesperson Wolfgang Büchner said Wednesday that the killing of six Israeli hostages “has once again made clear that a cease-fire that opens the way to the freeing of all hostages held by Hamas must now have the highest priority. Other considerations should stand back.”

He called on all involved in the negotiations to show flexibility and readiness to compromise, and said an agreement could also help de-escalate regional tensions.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is setting off Wednesday evening on a trip to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel and the West Bank to speak with regional officials, including Israel’s foreign and defense ministers and the Palestinian prime minister. It will be her 11th visit to the Middle East and her ninth to Israel since Hamas’ attack on Israel triggered the war nearly 11 months ago.

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Greta Thunberg Detained at Anti-Israel Demonstration in Denmark

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was among six people who were detained in Denmark, police said, after they demonstrated against the University of Copenhagen for cooperating with Israeli universities and shouted pro-Palestinian slogans.

The group was detained Wednesday for suspected trespassing after police said they briefly occupied one of the entrances to the university. They were all later released.

Police evicted the demonstrators after they hung an anti-Israel banner from one of the windows of the university’s old administration building in downtown Copenhagen.