“We think we need another day tomorrow to completely complete the central zone,” said Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, WHO Representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).
From Gaza, he explained that the third day of the campaign continued during the daily eight-hour breaks agreed between the Israeli army and Hamas fighters.
Each “humanitarian pause” lasts from 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. local time, with the option to add an extra day if needed.
Further rounds
The WHO doctor explained that vaccination teams will move to the larger southern zone on Thursday for another three days and probably a fourth, before moving to the northern zone. “Four weeks later, the process will be repeated for the second round of vaccinations,” he added.
Reaching the northern part of the Gaza Strip remains a challenge as WHO has attempted to send missions to the north over the past two weeks to provide hospitals with essential medical supplies.
“Out of the eight or nine missions we had planned, only three or four could go ahead,” he said. An Emergency Medical Team (EMT) was sent to the Indonesian hospital and a pediatrician to Kamal Adwan Hospital, along with medicines and other supplies.
The trip back to base involved a seven-hour wait for permission to proceed to the holding point, with another 2.5 hours for screening at the checkpoint. Nearly 11 months into the war, the deconfliction process is still not effective, Dr. Peeperkorn said.
90 percent rate
According to the UN health agency, at least 90 percent of Palestinian children must be vaccinated for the campaign to be effective and prevent the spread of polio within Gaza and globally.
The Gaza Strip had high vaccination rates among the population before the conflict began in October 2023. Due to the impact of the war, routine vaccination coverage dropped from 99 percent in 2022 to less than 90 percent in the first quarter of 2024, increasing the risk of vaccine-preventable diseases in children, including polio.
Asked whether it would be possible to assess other very worrying health issues, such as childhood malnutrition, while vaccination teams are working, Dr. Peeperkorn said there is no excess capacity for that.
“It’s a very intensive campaign. You want to do it as quickly as possible, in as few days as possible. With all the complexities now in Gaza, we decided that we can’t add anything to this campaign. If we see that there is more activity possible in the second round, in four weeks, then we will definitely do that.”
The polio vaccination campaign comes amid massive destruction of Gaza’s health infrastructure, including water and sanitation systems, and after health officials discovered the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years, in a 10-month-old baby in a refugee camp. The virus can cause paralysis and even death in young children.
Relentless danger
While UN humanitarian agencies welcomed the humanitarian pauses in specific areas to allow the large-scale polio vaccination campaign to continue, they stressed the urgent need for the immediate release of all remaining hostages and a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. “Once these children are vaccinated, they will be returning to areas that we expect will be bombed again in the coming week,” warned James Elder, spokesman for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
“There is nothing in that that should be accepted as normal,” he continued. “And I think everyone now accepts that the ceasefire talks are just talks to keep us thinking that there is hope.
“After 10 months, we may be a little naive. So something has to happen, and that has to come back to those leaders who are supposed to represent their people.”
