Thousands of Children in Gaza Get 2nd Dose of Polio Vaccine

Nearly 94,000 children in Gaza City received a second dose of polio vaccine this weekend in an effort that was delayed by intense Israeli bombardment and mass evacuation orders in northern Gaza, the Gazan health ministry said.

The second phase of the vaccination campaign was originally set to begin on Oct. 23 across the north of the territory, but it was postponed because of a lack of assurances about pauses in the fighting and bombardment to ensure the safety of health workers, the World Health Organization and UNICEF said in a statement on Friday.

The first round of vaccinations in September covered all of northern Gaza. Since then, the Israeli military has launched an intense offensive in the area against what it has said is a resurgence of Hamas.

A humanitarian pause for the second and final phase of the vaccination campaign was only assured for Gaza City, according to the U.N. agencies. They said that around 15,000 children under 10 in northern towns where the Israeli military has been carrying out the offensive over the last few weeks “remain inaccessible and will be missed during the campaign, compromising its effectiveness.”

The Gazan Health Ministry said that as of Saturday, 437,774 children under 10 had received the second dose of the vaccine across the whole Gaza Strip. The campaign is scheduled to continue through Monday.