Israeli forces continue to attack the ongoing polio vaccination program in Gaza. At least 27 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Friday. Local residents and health workers reported that clashes took place in all areas of Gaza from Friday morning until nightfall. Two women and two children were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Nuseira, the largest and historic refugee camp in the valley. Eight people were killed in an airstrike in Gaza City, the largest city in Gaza, and the rest were residents of Khan Yunis, Rafa, Zeitoun.
For the past 11 months, the war in Gaza has been between Israeli forces and Hamas. The 3 mediator countries US, Qatar, Egypt and the international community have been working for months to stop this war. But so far, almost all of the initiatives taken to end the war and establish peace in Gaza have failed. Both Hamas and Israel blame each other for this failure. A polio vaccination program for children in the Gaza Strip began on September 1.Every year children in the Valley are vaccinated against polio and the entire program is overseen by three United Nations agencies – the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the UN Refugee Agency. Israeli forces and Hamas have agreed to a 9-hour daily ceasefire until the vaccination program ends.
Initially, the period of vaccination program was September 1 to September 3. However, on September 3, Palestinians who took refuge in the Gaza border town of Rafah said that many children there had not been vaccinated. Hence the duration of the program is further extended.
In a message posted on social media on Friday, UNRWA said, “Since the vaccination program started on September 1, about 355,000 children have been vaccinated against polio in Gaza. Our goal is to immunize all children between the ages of 1 and 10 in Gaza. The total number of children of this age in Gaza today is over 640,000.”