Polio vaccine push moves to northern Gaza amid disruptions: WHO

GENEVA — The third phase of a giant polio vaccination drive targeting children in Gaza began Tuesday in a particularly war-ravaged zone, but the WHO said a support convoy had to abort its mission.

After the first confirmed polio case in 25 years, a massive vaccination effort began last week targeting over 640,000 children under 10, aided by localised "humanitarian pauses" in fighting.

After covering central and southern Gaza, the campaign moved into its final phase in the north from Tuesday until Thursday, said World Health Organization spokesman Tarik Jasarevic.

Maher Shamiya, the deputy health minister in the Gaza Strip, told AFP that 230 teams were working to provide the vaccines and that there had already been "significant turnout of families eager to vaccinate their children".

"I came to protect my children from polio," Samah Yahya, a 38-year-old mother of two from Gaza City, told AFP.

"I heard that the vaccine is safe, and thank God, the children received it."

Disease has spread with Gaza lying in ruins and the majority of its 2.4 million residents forced to flee their homes due to Israel's military assault — often taking refuge in cramped and unsanitary conditions.

A fresh campaign to provide a needed second dose is due to begin in about four weeks in Gaza, besieged for over 11 months.

Ahead of the roll-out of the third phase, "vaccines, cold chain equipment and finger markers were delivered to north Gaza yesterday," Jasarevic said.

However, "a WHO mission carrying fuel for hospitals and vehicles for the polio campaign as well as campaign monitoring experts was impeded", he said.

It had taken three hours for that mission to get a green light from the Israelis to move, "followed by five hours at the holding point, after which the mission had to be aborted", he explained.

'Sustained access' needed 

WHO also voiced concern that some areas in the north facing Israeli evacuation orders are part of the areas where humanitarian pauses had been agreed to allow the vaccination to go ahead.

"We appeal to all parties to continue ensuring these humanitarian pause zones are respected during the campaign," Jasarevic said.

He said a separate WHO mission to reach Gaza's largest hospital, Al-Shifa, in the north was also "impeded" on Monday.

That marked the fourth time in as many days that WHO was unable to reach the hospital.

"We call for safe and sustained access to the north and for a functional de-confliction system, which still remains a challenge 11 months into the war," Jasarevic said.

He said the number of denied requests for access to the north had "doubled in August compared to previous months".

UN spokesman Jens Laerke told reporters that out of 208 UN attempts to access northern Gaza in August, only 74 successfully made their scheduled aid deliveries.

"Forty-four were impeded, which means they were blocked or delayed on the ground, resulting in some of them being aborted", while 72 were "flatly denied", he said, adding that the remainder were withdrawn by the UN due to logistical, operational or security reasons.