Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, (main picture) has torn up a deal with the United Nations (UN) designed to deliver regular suspensions of hostilities in Gaza to enable the delivery of polio vaccine to vulnerable Palestinian children.

The UN announced the agreement last week, saying pauses in missile attacks by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) would allow medical teams to vaccinate about 640,000 children across Gaza.

The UN said the campaign was essential after the highly infectious polio virus was detected in sewage water in Gaza.

But Mr Netanyahu today criticised the deal and ordered that attacks in Gaza by the IDF continue unabated.

“I’ve taken this decision because I was badly misled about the UN’s proposal,” he said.

“I was under the impression that I was agreeing to allow the UN to inject children in Gaza with the polio virus, not vaccinate against it.

“Now that the deal has been explained to me by senior IDF officers I find it to be totally unacceptable,” Mr Netanyahu said.

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Former US President Donald Trump has responded to claims he breached longstanding rules and etiquette by allegedly using a visit to the Arlington military cemetery near Washington DC for campaign purposes.

“Not true. More fake news,” Mr Trump said. “The allegations make no sense when you stop to think about it.

“I mean why would I go there to campaign when the whole place is full of suckers and losers?”

Mr Trump refused to confirm or deny that US Army officials had directed him not to wear a red cap labelled Make Arlington Great Again during the photo opportunity he staged with family members at one soldier’s grave.

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Shadow Foreign Minister Simon Birmingham has signalled a more proactive approach to the Ukraine-Russia war if a Coalition government is elected at next year’s federal poll, but has stopped short of signalling the widespread acceptance of refugees from the conflict.

Senator Birmingham said a Coalition government would reopen the Australian embassy in Kyiv and lift Australia’s military commitment to Ukraine to help it defeat Russian forces and secure its borders.

However, reflecting Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s recent position on Gaza, Senator Birmingham said the change in approach would not extend to accepting Ukrainian refugees.

He justified the position by saying “things have changed” since the Fraser Government welcomed Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s, since the Howard Government accepted refugees in 1999 fleeing the war in Kosovo, and since the Abbott Government took in refugees from the war in Syria in 2015.

When asked what specifically had changed in the interim Senator Birmingham was brief: “Peter Dutton’s now the leader, so all immigrants especially refugees from conflicts are now potential terrorists. End of story.”

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