Polio vaccine campaign starts in Gaza

A small number of children in Gaza received vaccine doses a day before the large-scale rollout and limited pauses in the fighting agreed to by Israel and the U.N. World Health Organization.

“There must be a cease-fire so that the teams can reach everyone targeted by this campaign,” said Dr. Yousef Abu Al-Rish, Gaza’s deputy health minister, describing scenes of sewage running through crowded tent camps.

Polio is spread through fecal matter.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in a statement announced “Israel will allow a humanitarian corridor only” and “areas will be established that will be safe for administering the vaccines for a few hours”.

Israel noted the vaccination program would continue through Sept. 9 and last eight hours a day. It will allow health workers to administer vaccines with the aim of reaching some 640,000 Palestinian children.

The vaccination campaign comes after the first polio case in 25 years in Gaza was discovered this month. Doctors concluded a 10-month-old had been partially paralyzed by a mutated strain of the virus after not being vaccinated due to fighting. Most people who contract the disease do not experience symptoms, and those who do usually recover in a week or so. But there is no cure.

Healthcare workers in Gaza have warned of the potential for a polio outbreak for months.

The territory’s humanitarian crisis has deepened during the war that broke out after Hamas-led fighters stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and abducting around 250.

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 40,700 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.