Over 58,600 children in northern Gaza received the final dose of the polio vaccine on Saturday, the United Nations said, as health workers race to vaccinate thousands more before the campaign wraps up on Monday.
The operation to deliver a second dose — which is necessary to effectively stop the transmission of polio — started in mid-October. It was meant to last a couple of weeks. But on Oct. 23, the vaccination campaign was postponed in northern Gaza due to safety concerns over Israeli airstrikes and mass evacuation orders.
"These conditions made it impossible for families to safely bring their children for vaccination and for vaccination teams to perform their duties," the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF said in a statement on Friday.
Health officials announced that the vaccine campaign would resume over the weekend in northern Gaza — but Israeli officials have only agreed this time to humanitarian pauses in fighting in Gaza City, arguing that other areas in the north have been largely evacuated. For weeks, northern Gaza has been besieged by Israeli forces on the assertion that Hamas regrouped there.
According to the WHO and UNICEF, around 15,000 children who need a second dose live in northern areas beyond Gaza City that are now inaccessible because of fighting — compromising the effectiveness of the vaccine campaign.
"To interrupt poliovirus transmission, at least 90 per cent of all children in every community and neighbourhood must be vaccinated, which will be challenging to achieve given the situation," the two organizations, both of which are part of the United Nations, said.
The initial goal was to administer a second dose to 119,000 children in northern Gaza, but the WHO and UNICEF said "achieving this target is now unlikely due to access constraints."
U.N. officials say Israeli airstrikes hit near a polio vaccine center
Despite the agreement to pause fighting, UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said Israeli airstrikes reportedly hit near the Sheikh Radwan primary health center in Gaza City as parents were bringing their children for polio vaccinations. She said six people, including four children, were injured in the attack. The Israeli military said an initial review indicated it was not conducting operations in the area at the time.
This weekend, more than 50 children in Jabalia in northern Gaza were killed after airstrikes wrecked two residential buildings sheltering hundreds of people, according to Russell. She added that a car of a UNICEF staff member assisting with the vaccination efforts was also under fire by what she suspects was a quadcopter.
"The attacks on Jabalia, the vaccination clinic and the UNICEF staff member are yet further examples of the grave consequences of the indiscriminate strikes on civilians in the Gaza Strip,” Russell said.
Since the polio vaccination effort first began in Gaza, health officials warned that the success of the campaign would hinge upon Hamas and Israel agreeing to humanitarian pauses in fighting. About 590,000 children received the first dose back in September. About 451,000 children in central and southern Gaza were administered the second dose last month.
Over the summer, the polio virus was detected in Gaza's wastewater and a baby was diagnosed with the first case in the territory in 25 years.
NPR's Kat Lonsdorf and Scott Neuman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed reporting.
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