Polio vaccine campaign for children starts in Gaza

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
1 Sep 2024 09:28

An unspecified number of Palestinian children receive their first dose of the vaccine at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

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A nurse administers Polio vaccine drops to a young Palestinian patient at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on August 31, 2024. (AFP)

A campaign to vaccinate children in Gaza against polio and curb the spread of the virus has commenced, amid the continued Israeli war on the Palestinian people in the enclave.

Gaza's Health Ministry announced at a news conference on Saturday that children in the Strip had begun receiving vaccines, just one day before the large-scale rollout and a planned temporary pause in fighting agreed upon by "Israel" and the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

An unspecified number of children received their first dose of the vaccine at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. The vaccination, which consists of two oral doses, will be administered across the Strip.

Following its start in central Gaza, the campaign will extend to southern and northern Gaza to vaccinate over 640,000 children under the age of 10, according to health officials.

WHO Deputy Director-General Michael Ryan informed the UN Security Council this week that 1.26 million doses of the oral vaccine had been delivered to Gaza, with an additional 400,000 doses expected to arrive shortly.

While the Israeli occupation authorities indicated that vaccines would be given daily from 6:00 am (0300 GMT) until 2:00 pm for three days in central Gaza, three days in southern Gaza, and three days in northern Gaza, the Gaza Health Ministry distributed a different schedule, with the vaccine program lasting four days in each location.

The Ministry identified 67 vaccination centers -- mostly hospitals, smaller health centers, and schools -- in central Gaza, 59 in southern Gaza, and 33 in northern Gaza.

The Gaza Government Media Office underlined on Saturday that the vaccination campaign required an "immediate ceasefire".

But Israeli occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said measures to facilitate polio vaccination in Gaza are "not a ceasefire."

Earlier, the Health Ministry reported that hospitals received the bodies of 89 people, including 26 who were killed in overnight Israeli airstrikes, with an additional 205 individuals wounded—one of the highest daily tolls in months.

Israeli airstrikes targeted a multi-story building housing displaced persons in and around the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, as well as locations in Khan Younis to the south and Gaza City to the north, according to officials at hospitals in these areas on Saturday morning.

Officials indicated that the pause, expected to last at least nine hours, is a result of an agreement with the WHO and is not related to ongoing ceasefire negotiations between "Israel", Hamas, and regional mediators.

This vaccination campaign follows the recent discovery of the first polio case in 25 years, involving a 10-month-old child who was partially paralyzed by a mutated strain of the virus after not receiving the vaccine due to the ongoing war.