Children in southern Gaza are still under public health threat due to deteriorating sanitation conditions as a result of the ongoing Israeli attacks, despite the roll-out of a polio vaccination campaign.
UN humanitarians said on Thursday more than 160,000 children were vaccinated against polio on the very first day of the second phase.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the first phase of polio vaccinations in central Gaza was completed on Wednesday, with 187,000 children vaccinated, well more than the target of 156,000 vaccinations.
The spread of the polio virus has left residents in the Gaza Strip living in fear, which has been eased since the vaccine became available. However, the more significant challenge lies in the difficulty of administering the vaccine and ensuring that local children have access to healthy environment to prevent the spread of other diseases.
Marwa Al Hamamy and her family live in Al-Mawasi, where thousands of displaced Palestinians are camping. Her eldest daughter, Samira, is three years old, and her younger son, Ahmed, is just 10 months old.
Fearing that her children might contract the polio virus, Marwa decided to take them for vaccination as soon as the Gaza health authorities announced the start of a large-scale vaccination campaign in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday.
"We waited in line for a long time and felt very exhausted to get the vaccine. Before the conflict, everything was orderly and clean. But now, you see dust everywhere. We had no other options but vaccinating our children in such an environment," said Marwa.
Marwa's concern extends far beyond just polio. Due to the Israel-Hamas conflict, Marwa's family left their home in Gaza City and moved south first to Rafah, and shortly after, to Khan Younis. While their place of residence has constantly changed, the harsh living conditions have remained the same. Even the garbage bins that were once used for trash are now being used to store water for daily use.
"We are now living in a tent, unlike before when we lived in a clean house with water, shampoo, and everything we needed. But now, there's no shampoo, no cleaning supplies, and we have to fetch water from far away. There are also many bugs here, and the children have started developing skin diseases because we can't maintain proper hygiene, and there isn't enough water to bathe them," said Marwa.
The OCHA said the decrease in meal provision was in part attributed to multiple evacuation orders issued by the Israeli security forces, with at least 70 kitchens forced to suspend cooked meal provision or relocate.
Humanitarians said hostilities, insecurity, damaged roads, the breakdown of law and order, and access limitations resulted in critical shortage of aid commodities to sustain operations, increasing the risk of spoilage and infestation of food supplies due to high temperatures.
The third and final phase of polio vaccination will be carried out in northern Gaza following the campaign in the south. Humanitarians hope to reach a total of 640,000 children. After four weeks, a second round of oral doses will be administered to complete the campaign touched off when a 10-month-old was diagnosed with the disease.
Children in southern Gaza still under public health threat despite rolling vaccination
Children in southern Gaza still under public health threat despite rolling vaccination
