Gaza: Polio could soon spread if vaccines don’t reach the north

“The polio outbreak in the Gaza Strip must be stopped before more children are paralyzed and the virus spreads,” a spokesman for the UN Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA) said Thursday. Louise Waterridge added that “the vaccination campaign needs to be facilitated in the north by introducing humanitarian pauses.”

To interrupt transmission, at least 90% of all children in every community and area must receive a second shot, following the relative success of the first round last month.

The third and final stage of the campaign, which was due to begin more than 24 hours ago across the north of the country, had to be postponed due to the escalation of violence. intensive bombing, mass relocation orders and lack of humanitarian pauses.

“Current conditions, including ongoing attacks on civilian infrastructure, continue to threaten the safety and movement of people in northern Gaza, making it impossible for families to safely bring their children for vaccinations and health workers unable to work,” Waterridge said.

The initiative aims to vaccinate around 120,000 children in the north.

Since the start of the second round of the polio campaign on 14 October, 442,855 children under 10 years of age have been successfully vaccinated in central and southern Gaza, representing 94% of the target in these zones.

‘Nightmare’ gets worse quickly

“The nightmare in northern Gaza is intensifying,” Waterridge warned. “For nearly three weeks, we have repeatedly warned that ongoing military operations are putting tens of thousands of civilians at grave risk.”

More than 400,000 people remain trapped in the north of the country, where Israel has stepped up its offensive, saying Hamas militants are regrouping there.

An UNRWA spokesman said people in the north were experiencing extreme suffering: “Heartbreaking levels of death, injury and destruction“

“Civilians are trapped under rubble, the sick and wounded are not receiving vital medical care, families lack food, their homes are destroyed, they have no shelter, and there is no safety anywhere.”

In the center of Gaza, At least 18 people, including children and an 11-month-old baby, were killed in an Israeli bombing of a school. According to Palestinian medical sources, the Nuseirat refugee camp was housing displaced persons.

At least 42 people were injured as a result of the attack.

Access denied

According to him, for three weeks now no food or aid has arrived in the north, and there are no markets or shops selling food.

The military offensive has also cut off access to basic necessities for survival, including water.

UNRWA health posts in the north and eight wells in Jabaliya are not working and fuel for the water supply has run out, forcing people to risk their lives just to find clean water.

Although UNRWA and the World Food Program (WFP) facilitated the passage of a food convoy into Gaza City on 15 October, An Israeli blockade has prevented him from reaching local residents for the past three weeks.he said, adding that UNRWA teams are ready to provide services in shelters, but they need materials to do so.

“There is a huge sense of frustration among displaced families in northern Gaza at the horrors they face, which they describe as a live broadcast of their death and suffering,” he said. “We are receiving desperate requests from our colleagues and friends in northern Gaza.”

“The UN has never been more brutally attacked”

At least 232 UNRWA staff have been killed in the Gaza Strip, more than 200 of its facilities have been damaged or destroyed, and a bill in the Israeli Knesset aims to end operations in the occupied Palestinian territory, agency head Philippe Lazarini said on Thursday. at a conference in Paris dedicated to the escalation of the crisis in Lebanon.

The official noted that the UN has “never come under more brutal attack,” ensuring that the multilateral system “has become yet another casualty” of the Gaza war.

“The violations of international humanitarian law that we see in the occupied Palestinian territories and throughout the region They could set precedents for other conflict situations and weaken the international order. (…) We must resist attempts to intimidate and undermine the United Nations, including UNRWA,” Lazzarini added.