Polio vaccine campaign begins in Gaza, as hostilities continue to worsen in West Bank
- Children in the Gaza Strip began receiving vaccines against polio on Saturday, ahead of an expected three-day pause in fighting agreed to by Israel, Palestinian groups and the WHO.
- The development came as Gaza recorded one of its bloodiest days in recent months, including the deaths of 26 people killed in an Israeli bombardment overnight.
- The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent months trying to mediate a ceasefire that would see an end to the hostilities, however talks have repeatedly stalled.
A campaign to inoculate children in Gaza against polio and prevent the spread of the virus began on Saturday after the war-torn Palestinian territory recorded its first case of the disease in a quarter of a century.
Children began receiving vaccines on Saturday, Gaza’s health ministry announced in a news conference, a day before the large-scale rollout and first three-day “humanitarian pause” in fighting agreed to by Israel, Palestinian groups and the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO).
The campaign, which involves two doses, aims to cover more than 640,000 children under the age of 10. After the program begins in central Gaza, vaccines are set to be administered to children in southern Gaza and then in northern Gaza.
Associated Press reporters saw roughly 10 infants receiving vaccine doses in Khan Younis’s Nasser Hospital on Saturday afternoon.
WHO deputy director-general Michael Ryan told the UN Security Council this week that 1.26 million doses of the oral vaccine had been delivered to the besieged Palestinian territory, with another 400,000 still to arrive.
The West Bank-based Palestinian health ministry said earlier this month that tests in Jordan had confirmed polio in an unvaccinated 10-month-old baby from central Gaza.
Poliovirus, the causative agent of polio, is highly infectious and is most often spread through sewage and contaminated water — an increasingly common problem in Gaza as the Israel-Hamas war drags on.
The disease mainly affects children under the age of five. It can cause deformities and paralysis, and is potentially fatal.
Gaza resident Bakr Deeb told French news agency AFP on Saturday that he brought his three children — all aged under 10 — to a vaccination point despite some initial doubts about its safety.
“I was hesitant at first and very afraid of the safety of this vaccination,” he said. “After the assurances of its safety, and with all the families going to the vaccination points, I decided to go with my children as well, to protect them.”
Moussa Abed, the director of primary healthcare at Gaza’s health ministry, stressed on Saturday that the vaccine was “100 per cent safe”.
Hostilities continue in West Bank, Gaza has bloodiest day in months
Hours before the polio vaccine announcement, Gaza’s health ministry said the enclave’s hospitals had received 89 dead on Saturday, including 26 who died in an overnight Israeli bombardment, and 205 wounded — one of the highest daily tallies in months.
In central Gaza, Israeli air strikes hit a multi-storey building housing displaced people in and around Nuseirat, a built-up refugee camp, further south in Khan Younis and in Gaza City.
Among the dead were a doctor and his family and a child, according to an initial list of hospital casualties and footage released by civil defence officials who operate under Gaza’s Hamas-run government.
Meanwhile, Israel continued its large-scale military campaign in the West Bank — the deadliest since the Israel-Hamas war began in October last year — and two car bombings by Palestinian militants near Israeli settlements left three soldiers injured.
The two car bombs exploded in Gush Etzion, a bloc of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Israel’s military killed both Palestinian attackers after the explosions, which occurred in a compound in the Karmei Tzur settlement and at a petrol station.
Three Israeli soldiers had minor injuries.
Palestinian officials said Israel was holding the bodies of the attackers, naming the men as Muhammad Marqa and Zoodhi Afifeh.
Hamas did not claim the men as its fighters, but called the attack a “heroic operation”. The militant group said earlier this month after a bombing in Tel Aviv that it would continue such attacks.
The bombings took place as Israel continued its large-scale raid — which includes destruction of infrastructure, air strikes and gun battles — into urban refugee camps in the cities of Jenin and Tulkarem, in the north of the volatile West Bank.
About 20 Palestinians have been killed since Israel’s incursion started Tuesday, causing alarm among the international community that the war might widen beyond Gaza.
“Many people are in need of assistance and we cannot reach them,” said Jenin’s governor, Kamal Abu-al Rub.
Israel has described the operation as a strategy to prevent attacks on Israeli civilians, which since the start of the war have increased in the West Bank, including near settlements that the international community largely considers illegal.
The Palestinian Health Ministry noted a surge in Palestinian deaths by Israeli forces, with 663 killed in the West Bank in the nearly 11 months since the war in Gaza began.
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 which resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,691 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. The UN human rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
Incessant Israeli bombardment has also caused a major humanitarian crisis and devastated Gaza’s health system.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent months trying to mediate a ceasefire that would see an end to the hostilities and the release of Israeli hostages held by Palestinian militant groups.
But the talks have repeatedly stalled as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed “total victory” over Hamas, and Hamas has demanded a lasting ceasefire and full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
Article link: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-01/polio-vaccine-campaign-begins-gaza-strip-car-bombing-west-bank/104295528Article source: ABC / AAP, AP | 1 September 2024
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