The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced on Wednesday the postponement of the polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza and North governorates due to the difficult conditions and the continuation of the Israeli military operation in the region.
The Ministry said that the Israeli occupation army is placing obstacles to the implementation of the emergency polio vaccination campaign, depriving children there of their right to receive vaccination.
In turn, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that the third phase of the polio vaccination campaign, which was scheduled to begin today, has been postponed due to the escalation of violence and mass displacement orders.
Also, the Regional Director of the World Health Organization in the Eastern Mediterranean said that the intense Israeli bombing, mass displacement, and difficulty in getting there have delayed plans to vaccinate more than 119,000 children in the north.
She added that the current conditions, which include the ongoing attack on civilian infrastructure, continue to endanger people’s safety and movements in northern Gaza, making it impossible for families to bring their children safely for vaccination and the work of health teams, and reiterated her call for a ceasefire.
She warned that the risk of polio spreading at the regional and global levels is very high if we fail to reach at least 90% of the children in Gaza.
Yesterday, Tuesday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) called for a temporary truce to provide an opportunity to leave northern Gaza, and said that “people are only waiting for death” there because of the Israeli attacks.
The polio campaign began on the first of September after the organization confirmed in August that a child had been partially paralyzed due to the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the Strip in 25 years.
On October 5, the occupation army began unprecedented bombing operations on the camp and town of Jabalia and large areas in the northern Gaza Strip governorate, before announcing the next day the start of an invasion of these areas, under the pretext of “preventing the Hamas movement from regaining its power in the region,” while saying Palestinians: Israel wants to occupy the region and displace its residents.
With broad American support and in front of the whole world, Israel has been waging a genocidal war on Gaza since October 7, 2023, which, as of yesterday afternoon, Tuesday, left 143,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded – most of them children and women – and more than 10,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine. It killed dozens of children and the elderly, in one of the worst global humanitarian disasters.