Image Credit: AFP
Deir el-Balah, Palestinian Territories: A second round of a campaign to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza against polio began Monday as Israeli forces continued deadly operations in parts of the Palestinian territory.
Polio has re-emerged in besieged Gaza for the first time in 25 years as a result of the war which has left most medical facilities and the sewage system in ruins.
“Today is the first day of the (second round of the polio) campaign and there is a good turnout because people are convinced by the vaccination,” Abu Saleel, an employee of the Gaza health ministry, told AFP at a medical centre in the central city of Deir el-Balah.
Behind him health workers administered the vaccine to dozens of children who had come with their families, an AFP correspondent reported.
The United Nations agencies for health and for children said they were aiming to provide follow-up doses to some 591,700 children under the age of 10 across Gaza in this round of vaccination.
This follows a first round of vaccination implemented from September 1 to 12, which was hailed as a success by aid agencies.
The latest drive comes amid an escalation of Israeli military operations in central and northern areas of Gaza in recent days, which have already killed and wounded hundreds, according to the Gaza civil defence agency.
The Israeli military has issued a string of evacuation orders there since it began operations from October 6 aimed at preventing Hamas militants from regrouping.
UN investigators last week accused Israel of deliberately targeting health facilities and killing and torturing medical personnel in Gaza – prompting fierce criticism from Israel.
Gaza’s sewage system has also been largely destroyed and human waste, which spreads the polio virus, often collects in the open in close proximity to dense population areas.
More than 1,000 health workers were mobilised for the new vaccination campaign on Monday, according to the United Nations agency for supporting Palestinian refugees, also known as UNRWA.
During the first campaign, aid agencies and Israeli authorities negotiated humanitarian pauses during periods when health centres were administering the doses to children.
But on Monday it was unclear whether such an initiative was in place for the second round of vaccinations.
COGAT, the Israeli military body supervising civilian affairs in Palestinian territories, confirmed that the second round had begun on Monday, but did not specify whether a humanitarian pause was planned.
An Israeli air strike on a school being used by displaced Palestinians killed at least 15 people in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp on Sunday night, according to the civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal.
It was another “night of horror,” said UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini on X.
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