GAZA STRIP (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime’s prevention of the implementation of the polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza leaves thousands of children at risk and could reverse progress made in this area, the Palestinian Ministry of Health warned Wednesday.
Not inoculating children in Gaza could lead to the spread of polio virus to neighboring countries and would negatively affect global efforts to eradicate the disease, the ministry added.
The ministry of health announced that it had decided to implement the third phase of the national polio vaccination campaign in Gaza City on November 11, after the Zionist regime obstructed and prevented its implementation in north Gaza provinces last week.
“According to data on the security situation in north Gaza governorate, the campaign will be implemented in Gaza governorate only, next Saturday, November 11, 2024.”
It confirmed that it will spare no effort to implement a special campaign for children in the northern governorate when appropriate conditions allow.
A day earlier, the Gaza Health Ministry has announced that Zionist troops are preventing campaign teams from reaching the northern part of the besieged enclave and are placing obstacles to the implementation of vaccinations in Gaza City as well.
The health ministry also cautioned that the vaccination campaign is accordingly at risk, “which means the continued existence of the polio epidemic that will not only threaten Gaza, but also threaten the entire surrounding area”.
The World Health Organization announced last week that “intense bombardment” and “escalating violence” in northern Gaza had forced it to halt the final phase of a child polio vaccination drive.
The necessary second round of vaccinations has been completed in central and southern Gaza, and was to begin on Wednesday in the north.
But the WHO said it had been “compelled to postpone” the bid to give 119,279 children in northern Gaza a second vaccine dose.
Israel launched a major air and ground assault in northern Gaza this month.
The vaccination campaign was called off “due to the escalating violence, intense bombardment, mass displacement orders, and lack of assured humanitarian pauses across most of northern Gaza”, the UN health agency announced.
“The current conditions, including ongoing attacks on civilian infrastructure, continue to jeopardize people’s safety and movement in northern Gaza, making it impossible for families to safely bring their children for vaccination,” and for health workers to operate, it added.
The vaccination drive began after the Gaza Strip confirmed its first case of polio in 25 years.
The war has left most medical facilities and Gaza’s sewage system in ruins.