GAZA, (PIC)
The foreign policy chief of the European Union Josep Borrell called on Tuesday for an immediate three-day ceasefire in Gaza to allow children to be vaccinated against poliovirus, the quick spread of which threatens hundreds of thousands of children in the besieged Palestinian territory.
The quick spread of polio threatens all children in Gaza, already weakened by displacement, deprivation, and malnourishment, Borrell said on X platform.
Borrell urged “an immediate 3-day humanitarian ceasefire to enable vaccination by WHO and UNICEF – independent of wider negotiations.”
“Our humanity demands it,” the EU’s top diplomat said.
After six sewage samples taken in Gaza in late June tested positive for the virus, the World Health Organization warned that it was “just a matter of time” before the disease reached thousands of Palestinian children.
Now more than 1.2 million oral polio vaccines have arrived in the Gaza Strip, with millions more expected in the coming days.
