Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the United Nations Health Organization, said in a message on social media platform X that this is a huge success amid the tragic reality of daily life.
Following attacks by Hamas and other extremist groups in southern Israel in October 2023, the Israeli military launched a large-scale crackdown, which had a profound impact on the more than two million people in Gaza.
Thousands of people have been killed, huge numbers injured, millions displaced and humanitarian needs on a massive scale. It was the first polio sample collected in Gaza in 25 years.
In this context, more than 558,000 children have been vaccinated against type 2 polio between 1 and 12 September by UN agencies and partners. In this campaign, health workers provided vaccines to families in shelters, tents and other camps set up for the displaced.
Three steps to the first dose of the vaccine
Based on geography, health workers conduct these operations for different periods of time in central, southern and northern Gaza. During this period, there was a pause in the fighting for humanitarian reasons, to ensure the safety of communities and health workers participating in the vaccination campaign.
Now preparations should be made to give the second dose of vaccine to these children within the next four weeks. The United Nations Health Organization has expressed confidence that the humanitarian situation will continue in the coming days.
The vaccination campaign faced enormous challenges, such as destroyed roads and health care facilities, limited access to fuel and a shortage of trained health workers, but in Gaza, with the cooperation of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the Ministry of Health, it was completed.
UNRWA worker dies in West Bank
Civilians are still dying, being displaced and destroying their homes and civilian infrastructure due to the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
The UN has lost 220 UNRWA workers so far. On Thursday, an UNRWA employee died of injuries in the El Fara camp in the northern West Bank.
According to the UN agency, it was a worker associated with sanitation services. He was killed by a sniper’s bullet during an Israeli military operation while on the roof of his house last night.
He is survived by his wife and five children. According to the UN agency, this is the first time a UNRWA worker has died in the West Bank in more than 10 years.
There has been unprecedented violence here for the past few days, due to which the situation is alarming for the community.