“On the first day, 87,000 were vaccinated of the 156,000 we hope to reach in the Central Area,” said Louise Wateridge, Senior Communications Officer for UNWRA, the largest UN agency in the Gaza Strip. “What is promising is that we have already heard interest from parents who are coming from Khan Younis, who are coming from the south, and who are asking our staff there and our teams, ‘When will the vaccination be available for us? When can we bring our children?’“”
Ms Wateridge stressed the urgent need for a ceasefire to ensure the vaccination campaign is successful, along with the release of all hostages taken during the Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel on 7 October. “What these children need most now is a ceasefire,” UNRWAsaid on X.
Speaking on day two of the vaccination campaign, Ms Wateridge reported seeing “hundreds of children” at a health centre in Deir Al-Balah and more at a UNWRA school in the central city. “The school reported that 3,000 children were vaccinated yesterday alone, so you know we are seeing very good numbers and (we need to) keep up the momentum,”
On Sunday, vaccination teams were operating in UNRWA health centres, mobile health points and tents, with similar arrangements in place for Monday. “We are doing everything we can to ensure that all children under 10 are vaccinated. Temporary pauses in the conflict are essential for delivering these vaccines,” UNRWA added on X. “In addition to the pause, these children need a vaccine that has been delayed for too long.”
Too dangerous to move
The first three-day campaign in Gaza’s Middle Area to protect some 640,000 Palestinian youth from the highly contagious disease comes after health authorities detected the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years. To provide maximum protection, children must receive two doses of the vaccine, four weeks apart. More than 1.2 million vaccine doses have been delivered to Gaza, with another 400,000 doses expected soon.
UN Agencies UNRWA, the UN World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Palestinian health authorities aim to achieve a vaccination coverage of at least 90 percent in each round of the campaign to contain the current outbreak and prevent the international spread of polio.
Amid outbreaks of hepatitis, diarrhea and other preventable diseases linked to 10 months of heavy Israeli bombardment and clashes with Hamas militants, UN agencies stressed the need for all warring parties to maintain the agreed eight-hour pause in hostilities. “One of the biggest challenges is actually distributing the vaccinations safely, because we have a number of areas in these so-called (humanitarian) pause zones between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m., there is no fighting,” UNRWA’s Ms. Wateridge told UN News. “We are still struggling to get access to facilities and access to families and children in those areas. It is far too dangerous for them to travel, to move; there is constant fighting.”
Ms Wateridge reported “lots of strikes” on Monday morning and Sunday night. “So the fighting is far from over. There are some lulls during the day, but that’s not guaranteed. We don’t have guaranteed safety for people, and we really need that to reach all the children to get that 90 per cent success rate.”
Best Vaccine is Peace: Tedros
Last week, Israeli authorities agreed to a series of three-day “humanitarian pauses” in central, southern and northern Gaza, allowing the vaccination campaign to continue. The UN health agency WHO welcomed the pauses, but reiterated that ultimately “the only solution” to protect the health of Gaza’s children was a ceasefire. “The best vaccine for these children is peace,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The vaccination campaign faces significant challenges, including ongoing fighting, destroyed roads and hospital closures due to the conflict. According to WHO, insecurity, damaged infrastructure and population movements make it unlikely that three days will be sufficient for adequate coverage in each area. “It was agreed that the vaccination period will be extended by one day if necessary,” WHO noted, stressing that vaccination teams must be protected and able to do their work safely.
The campaign comes amid a dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where the conflict between Israel and Hamas, combined with Israel’s blockade of the enclave, has led to acute shortages of food, drinking water and medical supplies. The deteriorating situation has raised fears of further outbreaks of diseases, not limited to polio. “Today, children in Gaza are receiving the vaccines they desperately need,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X. “Ultimately, the best vaccine for these children is peace.”
The latest UN data indicates that some 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced within the besieged area, with hundreds of thousands of people crammed into overcrowded tent camps, some enjoying a rare respite from the fierce fighting that has devastated much of the Strip.
“The one thing that struck me yesterday was, you know, not hearing a bomb for an hour,” said UNRWA’s Ms. Wateridge. “Not hearing a strike for an hour… it struck me that yesterday was a calmer, quieter day because it had been so brutal the last few weeks and there had been so many evacuation orders; 16 evacuation orders in August alone. Thousands, hundreds of thousands of people and families were forced to flee.”
