“There were 87,000 people vaccinated on the first day out of the 156,000 people we hoped to reach in the Central Area,” said Louise Wateridge, senior communications officer at UNWRA, the largest UN agency in the Gaza Strip. “It is encouraging that we have heard concerns from parents coming from Khan Younis, who are from the southern region, and are asking our staff there and asking our team, ‘When can we get vaccinated? When can we get our kids vaccinated?“”
Ms Wateridge stressed the urgent need for a ceasefire for the vaccination campaign to succeed, along with the release of all hostages taken in Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel on October 7. “What these children need most is a ceasefire right now,” UNRWA say on X.
Speaking on the second day of the vaccination campaign, Ms Wateridge said she had seen “hundreds of children” at a health centre in Deir Al-Balah and more at a UNWRA school in the city centre. “The school reported that yesterday alone 3,000 children were vaccinated, so you know we are seeing very good numbers and [need] to stay motivated,”
On Sunday, vaccination teams were operating at UNRWA health centres, mobile health posts and tents, with similar arrangements in place on Monday. “We are doing everything possible to ensure that all children under the age of 10 are vaccinated. The pause in conflict is essential to deliver these vaccines,” UNRWA added on X. “In addition to the pause, these children need a vaccine that has been delayed for far too long.”
Too dangerous to move
The first three-day campaign in the Central Gaza Strip 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. For maximum protection, children will need two doses of the vaccine, four weeks apart. More than 1.2 million doses have been delivered to Gaza, with another 400,000 expected soon.
United Nations agencies UNRWA, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Palestinian health authorities aim to achieve at least 90 percent vaccination coverage in each round of the campaign to contain the current outbreak and prevent the spread of polio worldwide.
Amid outbreaks of hepatitis, diarrhea and other preventable diseases linked to 10 months of intense Israeli bombing and clashes with Hamas militants, UN agencies have stressed the need for all warring parties to maintain an agreed eight-hour ceasefire in the fighting. “One of the biggest challenges is actually distributing the vaccine safely because we have some areas in the so-called [humanitarian] “The areas are on hold from 6am to 2pm, there is no need for fighting,” UNRWA’s Ms Wateridge told UN News. “We are still struggling to access facilities and reach families and children in those areas. It is too dangerous for them to move or travel; fighting is still going on.”
Ms Wateridge reported “a lot of air strikes” on Monday morning and all through Sunday night. “So the fighting never stopped. There were a few pauses throughout the day, but it wasn’t guaranteed. We couldn’t guarantee everyone’s safety, and we really needed that to reach all the children to get to the 90 per cent success rate.”“ .
The best vaccine is peace: Tedros
Last week, Israeli authorities agreed to a series of three-day “humanitarian pauses” in central, southern and northern Gaza to allow the vaccination campaign to proceed. The UN health agency WHO welcomed the pauses but reiterated that ultimately the “only solution” to protect the health of Gaza’s children is a ceasefire. “The best vaccine for these children is peace,” speak WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The vaccination campaign faces significant challenges, including ongoing fighting, damaged roads and hospitals closed due to the conflict. Insecurity, damaged infrastructure and population movements mean that three days in each area is unlikely to be enough to provide adequate coverage, according to the WHO. “We agreed that the vaccination period will be extended by one day if necessary,” the WHO noted, stressing that vaccination teams must be protected and allowed to carry out their work safely.
The operation comes amid a dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where fighting between Israel and Hamas, coupled with an Israeli blockade of the enclave, has led to severe shortages of food, water and medical supplies. The worsening situation has raised fears of further outbreaks of diseases, not just polio. “Today, children in Gaza are getting the vaccines they desperately need,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X. “Ultimately, the best vaccine for these children is peace.”
The latest UN data shows that about 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced within the besieged territory, with hundreds of thousands crammed into overcrowded tent camps. Some have enjoyed a rare respite from the fierce fighting that has devastated much of the Gaza Strip.
“One thing I noticed yesterday was, you know, an hour went by without hearing any bombs,” said UNRWA’s Wateridge. “An hour went by without hearing any bombs… you could tell that yesterday was a calmer, quieter day because the situation has been very dire over the last few weeks and there have been a lot of evacuations; 16 evacuations in August alone. Thousands, hundreds of thousands of people and families and forced to flee.”
