UN officials welcome progress in Gaza polio vaccination campaign, call for permanent ceasefire

The main United Nations agency for Palestinians said on Wednesday it was making good progress in rolling out a polio vaccine to children in Gaza, but called for a permanent ceasefire in the 11-month war to ease humanitarian suffering.

UNRWA said that three days into the campaign in areas of central Gaza around 187,000 children have received the vaccine. The campaign will move to other areas of the enclave in the second stage.

The campaign was triggered by the discovery of a case of polio in a baby boy last month, the first in Gaza in 25 years. Israel and Hamas militants agreed to daily pauses of eight hours in the fighting in pre-specified areas to allow the vaccination program. No violations have been reported.

"Great progress! Every day in the Middle Areas of #Gaza, more children are getting vaccines against #Polio," the head of the global relief agency, Philippe Lazzarini, said on X on Wednesday.

"While these polio “pauses” are giving people some respite, what is urgently needed is a permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages + the standard flow of humanitarian supplies including medical and hygiene supplies," he said.

Palestinians say a key reason for the return of polio is the collapse of the health system and the destruction of most of Gaza's hospitals. 

On Tuesday, COGAT, an Israeli defence ministry agency tasked with coordinating aid deliveries into Palestinian territories, said since the beginning of the war, it has facilitated the entry of 282,126 vials of the polio vaccine, enough for 2,821,260 people.

It also said in a statement that approximately 554,512 vials of vaccines have entered the Gaza Strip, which is enough for 4,973,736 individual vaccines for various diseases and potential epidemics in the Gaza Strip.

Gaza has a population of around 2.3 million people.

(Reuters)