The WHO has said that the time agreed on for a polio vaccination campaign in Gaza is “unlikely to be enough” to achieve adequate coverage due to the dire situation in the enclave.
The World Health Organization announced on Sunday that it succeeded in vaccinating over 87,000 children on the first day of a nine-day polio vaccination campaign aimed at reaching at least 90 percent of children in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus shared Sunday photos on X of children being vaccinated in Gaza and wrote: “Children in Gaza are receiving much-needed polio vaccines today. Ultimately, the best vaccine for these children is peace.”
Anadolu news agency quoted medical personnel overseeing the vaccination campaign at centers in Deir al-Balah as saying that hundreds of the children vaccinated showed signs of “fatigue and malnutrition” taken the harsh living conditions under which they have been living since the start of the Israeli raging war on Gaza.
Today, the #polio vaccination campaign in #Gaza middle areas enters its second day
On 1st day only, @UNRWA teams & partners reached around 87,000 children according to @WHO
Efforts are ongoing to provide children with this key vaccine, but what they need most is a #CeasefireNow pic.twitter.com/2psQSbLcAd
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) September 2, 2024
According to Anadolu, thousands of Palestinians headed to the designated centers to vaccinate their children under the age of 10.
Head of the technical committee of the vaccination campaign, Majdi Duhair, announced Saturday that the campaign will kick off in central Gaza between September 1-4, to be followed by Khan Yunis between September 5-9, and will end in Gaza City and regions in the north of Gaza between September 9-12.
Insufficient Time frame
The WHO has said that the time agreed on for a polio vaccination campaign in Gaza is “unlikely to be enough” to achieve adequate coverage due to amongst others; the security situation in the enclave.
“Due to insecurity, damage to roads and infrastructure, and population movement and displacement, three days in each area is unlikely to be enough to achieve adequate coverage,” the WHO Director-General told a press briefing one day before the start of the vaccination campaign.
The polio vaccination campaign for children under 10 will begin in Gaza on Sunday and will last three days in each zone: central, south and north of Gaza – where humanitarian pauses will take place during the distribution.
The vaccination campaign is executed in collaboration with the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
Starting in #Gaza today: a mass vaccination campaign against #polio, which aims to reach 640,000 children under the age of ten.
"We want to emphasize this again and again: without humanitarian pauses, campaign delivery will not be possible." – @who pic.twitter.com/WWSgiN5IFe
— United Nations Geneva (@UNGeneva) September 1, 2024
WHO announced two weeks ago that a 10-month-old child from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza had developed paralysis after contracting the Type 2 poliovirus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
The organization mentioned that the re-emergence of polio in Gaza was primarily due to the collapse of the health system and widespread environmental destruction.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has warned that Israeli military attacks on healthcare infrastructure and water supplies as well as ongoing aid obstruction were contributing to a potentially catastrophic polio outbreak in Gaza.
“If the Israeli government continues to block urgent aid and destroy water and waste management infrastructure, it will facilitate the spread of a disease that has been nearly eradicated globally,” said Julia Bleckner, senior health and human rights researcher at HRW on August 26.
Ongoing Genocide
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 40,786 Palestinians have been killed, and 94,224 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
(PC, Anadolu)
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