Gaza polio vaccinations to resume Saturday

The World Health Organization said Friday that the necessary second round of child polio vaccinations in northern Gaza would begin on Saturday after an Israeli bombing had halted the drive.

The announcement that the final phase of polio vaccination in the Gaza Strip can go ahead came a day after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urgently called on Israel to facilitate a rapid completion of the campaign.

The vaccination drive began on September 1 after the besieged Palestinian territory confirmed its first case of polio in 25 years.

A first round of inoculation was completed across the Gaza Strip and the second round – essential to build up immunity – began as scheduled on Oct. 14, first in central Gaza, then the south, aided by so-called humanitarian pauses in the fighting.

But the WHO postponed the final phase in the north, which was set to begin on Oct. 23, due to "intense bombardment" making the conditions on the ground "impossible."

Israel launched a major air and ground assault in northern Gaza last month, saying it wanted to stop Hamas militants regrouping there.

“Polio vaccination in northern Gaza is ready to resume tomorrow,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday on X.

“We are assured of the necessary humanitarian pause in Gaza City to conduct the campaign.

“Unfortunately, the area covered is substantially reduced compared to the first round of vaccination, which will leave some children unprotected and at higher risk of infection.”

In its original reasoning for postponing vaccinations in the north, the U.N. health agency said the approved area for humanitarian breaks in the north had been cut down to Gaza City alone, meaning many children would have missed their second dose.

This would “seriously jeopardize efforts to stop the transmission of poliovirus in Gaza,” he had said.

Last Friday, Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO's representative in the Palestinian territories, said 452,000 children had been vaccinated in central and southern Gaza, and 119,000 children in the north were awaiting their second dose.

The WHO says a minimum of two separate doses of oral vaccine are needed to interrupt poliovirus transmission, requiring 90 percent of all children aged under 10 to be vaccinated in a given community.

Typically spread through sewage and contaminated water, poliovirus is highly infectious. 

It can cause deformities and paralysis, and is potentially fatal, mainly affecting children under the age of five.

The WHO and UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency, urged that the humanitarian pauses be respected, said Tedros.

"However, what the children in northern Gaza and across the whole Strip really need is peace, he added.