A third broad vaccination campaign against polio in the Gaza Strip began yesterday, Saturday, according to reporters of the French Press Agency, with the aim of delivering the first dose of about 600,000 children in the destroyed Palestinian sector.
Dozens of children were received without ten dose in a mosque in Jabalia, north of Gaza, where the Israeli aggression destroyed many buildings and turned them into rubble.
Several international agencies participate in the vaccination campaign, including the Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), and comes in light of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
For its part, the World Health Organization stated that this campaign aims to vaccinate more than 591,000 children by February 26.
“More than 1700 members of the agency team will participate in this campaign,” said UNRWA Commissioner -General Philip Lazarini on the X platform.
He added that “this campaign comes after polio monitoring in wastewater, which endangers children’s lives.”
The previous two campaigns were organized in late 2024 after the severe disease appeared again in Gaza for the first time in 20 years.
After more than 16 months of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, the humanitarian situation in Gaza is dangerous.
Even before the start of the aggression, the sector has suffered an Israeli siege imposed for more than 15 years.
Most of the infrastructure designated for water was destroyed, which led to the arrival of wastewater to open pools near populated neighborhoods, conditions that contributed to the emergence of the virus again last autumn.
The Health Organization said on February 19 that the polio virus was monitored again in wastewater samples.
The polio virus is very infected, and can lead to paralysis and affect children at the age of five. The disease was almost eliminated around the world.