Israel-Gaza war, live | Hamas rejects Israel’s new conditions in ceasefire talks | International

Over 1.2 million polio vaccines reach Gaza

The Gazan government’s health ministry confirmed on Sunday that more than 1.2 million polio vaccines have arrived in the Strip, after a case was confirmed in a 10-month-old child in the Palestinian enclave, the first case of the disease in 25 years.

For his part, the ministerial portfolio of the Palestinian Authority has indicated that the first shipment of vaccines has arrived and that “work is being done to supply another 365,000 doses in the coming days.” Thus, he specified that the target of the campaign is 640,000 children and that each child from one day to ten years of age will receive two doses of the vaccine.

“The Ministry is working day and night to coordinate with international health partners to launch operations in the coming days, so that the lives of health workers are not put at risk as a result of the occupation’s ongoing aggression against the Gaza Strip,” reads a statement published on the social network Facebook.

In this sense, it reiterated its call on the international community and organizations to “increase pressure on the occupying authorities to cease aggression and facilitate the mission of health workers in the Strip”.

The confirmation comes after the Coordinator of Governmental Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli military authority in charge of the Palestinian territories, announced that vaccines had entered Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing in coordination with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

“In the coming days, international and local medical teams will vaccinate children against polio in several locations across Gaza who have not yet been vaccinated,” announced COGAT, which will coordinate the campaign led by the WHO and UNICEF. There will also be regular humanitarian stops that will allow the population to access medical centers where the vaccines will be administered. (EP)