Columns of smoke rise behind people gathered in the corridors and on the balconies of Rafei School, which serves as a shelter for displaced people in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, on October 9. (Credit: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP)
"Challenging but possible": the new polio vaccination campaign in Gaza, set to start on Monday, is expected to be more complicated due to the fighting between Israel and Hamas in the northern Palestinian territory, the UN has indicated.
"I am, of course, concerned about the evolving situation in the north" of Gaza, said Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, representative of the World Health Organization (WHO), during a press briefing.
He expressed hope that the conflicting parties would respect "humanitarian pauses" for vaccination and highlighted that some health centers in northern Gaza are located in evacuation zones requested by Israel.
"We are worried because the conditions on the ground are really more complicated this time," increased Jean Gough, UNICEF’s special representative.
"It will be absolutely essential that not only are the localized humanitarian pauses respected in the north, but also that people are not forced to move from one area to another," she said: "This will be essential for us to be able to vaccinate at least 90% of children under 10 among the northern population."
She nevertheless stated that she was hopeful the campaign could proceed. "It's difficult but possible," she said.
After discovering the first case of polio—and for now the only one—in the Gaza Strip in 25 years, the WHO launched a large-scale campaign on September 1 to curb the risk of an epidemic.
The goal of the campaign is to prevent the spread of the poliovirus derived from a type 2 vaccine strain (cVDPV2 in English). Two drops of the nVPO2 vaccine must be administered—orally—at four-week intervals.
During the first vaccination cycle (September 1–12), 559,161 children under the age of 10 received their first dose, an operation deemed a "massive success" by the WHO.
The WHO hopes to vaccinate approximately 591,700 starting Monday.
As in September, "humanitarian pauses" in designated areas must allow the operation to proceed in three stages, in the central territory, and in the south and north. Children will also receive vitamin A.
The war in Gaza was triggered on October 7, 2023, by Hamas's attack on Israel, which resulted in the death of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count.
Israel's retaliatory military offensive killed 42,126 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the territory's Hamas-led Health Ministry, considered reliable by the UN.
