Cairo/GazaThe United Nations, in collaboration with Palestinian health authorities, began vaccinating 640,000 children in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, after Israel and Hamas agreed to brief pauses in their 11-month war to allow the campaign to develop.
The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed last month that a baby had been partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
The campaign began on Sunday in parts of central Gaza, and will move to other areas in the coming days. Fighting will pause for at least eight hours on three consecutive days.
According to the WHO, the pauses will likely have to be extended to a fourth day, and the first round of vaccinations will last just under two weeks.
Children, escorted by family members, crowded a U.N.-run clinic in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, where about a million people are sheltering, according to Palestinian officials. Medical staff marked children receiving the drops with a pen on their fingers.
“Today I came to the UNRWA clinic to vaccinate my daughters against polio and, God willing, we will not see any more diseases apart from the ones we are already suffering from. I hope we will return to our homes safe and sound,” said Afnan Al-Muqayyad, a mother from Gaza.
Polio was just one of Al-Muqayyad’s many concerns.
“Skin diseases are very common, there are no detergents, detergents are very expensive and we cannot afford them. Also, food is very expensive, everything is expensive, and the children’s weight is going down, they used to be fine but now they are very thin. I hope that God will put things right,” she said.
Complex campaign
Juliette Touma, UNRWA’s communications director, said the vaccination campaign was massive and “one of the most complex in the world.”
“Today is the time of the test for the warring parties to respect these pauses in the area to allow UNRWA teams and other medical workers to reach the children with these two precious drops. It is a race against time,” Touma told Reuters.
Israel and Hamas, which have so far failed to reach a deal to end the war, said they would cooperate to enable the campaign to succeed.
WHO officials say at least 90 percent of children need to be vaccinated twice with four weeks between doses for the campaign to be successful, but it faces enormous challenges in Gaza, which has been largely destroyed by war.
“Children remain exposed, it knows no borders, checkpoints or battle lines. All children must be vaccinated in Gaza and Israel to curb the risks of spreading this vicious disease,” Touma said.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued to battle Hamas-led militants in several areas of the Palestinian enclave. Residents said Israeli army troops blew up several houses in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, while tanks continued to operate in the suburb of Zeitoun, north of Gaza City.
On Sunday, Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in southern Gaza, where they were apparently killed shortly before Israeli troops reached them, the army said.
The war was sparked after Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli counts.
Since then, at least 40,691 Palestinians have been killed and 94,060 wounded in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
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– 2024-09-02 04:37:48
