A polio vaccination campaign began in Gaza on Saturday, a health official said, while an aid worker said a mass vaccination drive would begin on Sunday, coinciding with a “humanitarian pause” agreed by Israel and Hamas.
The vaccination campaign was announced earlier this month after Gaza’s first polio case in 25 years was reported.
Musa Abid, director of primary health care at the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, told AFP on Saturday that local health authorities, in collaboration with the United Nations and NGOs, were “starting a polio vaccination campaign today.”
An unknown number of children at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis were given the first dose of the vaccination, which consists of two doses and is given orally.
These included Amal Shaheen’s three-year-old daughter, who was already in hospital being treated for pneumonia.
“We have been in the hospital for 17 days… I spend all my day worrying about him,” Shaheen said.
“Today he was vaccinated against polio, like all the children in the hospital.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to a series of three-day “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza to facilitate vaccinations, although officials had previously said the campaign was expected to begin on Sunday.
‘No ceasefire’
Palestinian authorities held a launch event on Saturday and hoped the vaccination campaign would begin in full swing on Sunday, an international aid worker told AFP.
COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry body that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said on Saturday that the vaccines would be administered daily from 6:00 a.m. (0300 GMT) to 2:00 p.m. for three days in central Gaza, three days in southern Gaza, and three days in northern Gaza.
“At the end of each regional vaccination campaign, the situation in the area will be assessed,” it said.
The Palestinian Health Ministry released a slightly different schedule, with the vaccination program at each location lasting four days.
The ministry has identified 67 vaccination centers in central Gaza – mostly hospitals, small health centers and schools – 59 in southern Gaza and 33 in northern Gaza.
The poliovirus is highly contagious and is often spread through sewage and contaminated water — a problem that has become increasingly common in Gaza as the Israel-Hamas war continues.
The media office of the Hamas-run government in Gaza said on Saturday that an “immediate ceasefire” was needed for the vaccination campaign.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that measures to facilitate polio vaccinations in Gaza “are not a ceasefire”.
The campaign aims to cover over 640,000 children under the age of 10.
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 Gaza, with another 400,000 doses still to arrive
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry said earlier this month that tests carried out in Jordan confirmed polio in a 10-month-old child in central Gaza who had not been vaccinated.
The poliovirus is highly contagious and is often spread through sewage and contaminated water — a problem that has become increasingly common in Gaza as the Israel-Hamas war continues.
The disease mainly affects children under the age of five. It can cause deformities and paralysis and is potentially fatal.
‘100 percent safe’
Bakr Diab told AFP on Saturday that he brought all his three children – all under 10 – to a vaccination centre, despite initial doubts about the safety of the shot.
“At first, I was hesitant and very scared about the safety of this vaccination,” he said.
“After assurances of safety, and after all the families visited the vaccination centres, I decided to go with them for the safety of my children.”
Health official Abed insisted on Saturday that the vaccine is “100 percent safe.”
The war in Gaza began on October 7 with an unprecedented Hamas attack on southern Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count 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 United Nations human rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
Continuous Israeli bombing has created a major humanitarian crisis and destroyed the health system.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
