GAZA, (PIC)
Israel is obstructing the polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip, through its continued military attacks in vaccination-designated areas along with obstructing the arrival of a UN convoy on its way to northern Gaza to implement the vaccination campaign, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor revealed in a statement issued on Tuesday.
On Tuesday morning at around 7:30 am, Israeli warplanes bombed a group of Palestinians near a food kiosk in Gaza City’s “Al-Shawa Square,” killing five people, including a child, the statement reads.
The bombing occurred concurrently with the beginning of the polio vaccination campaign, which was carried out by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in collaboration with the UN and regional organizations north of Wadi Gaza. It was noted that the bombing specifically targeted the area around a food kiosk in the “Al-Tuffah neighborhood,” which is situated between three locations that were deemed safe for administering polio vaccinations.
Based on the information gathered by the Euro-Med field team, the targeted food stall is located in the Tuffah neighborhood east of Gaza City, just a short distance from the safe vaccination centers that have been designated for the Tuffah, Al-Daraj, and Al-Balad neighborhoods of Gaza City.
At the beginning of the polio vaccination campaign on September 1, the Israeli army ignored all calls for a humanitarian truce or a temporary cessation of attacks during the vaccination hours. Instead, it continued its military attacks on all areas of the Gaza Strip, both southern and northern. Israeli warplanes had earlier launched dozens of air raids near the vaccination centers in the south and central of the Strip.
Despite prior coordination, the Israeli occupation army detained a UN convoy on Monday for over eight hours on its way to northern Gaza.
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the convoy had both national and international staff travelling to roll out the polio vaccination campaign for children in Gaza City and northern Gaza. It was stopped at gunpoint just after the Wadi Gaza checkpoint, with threats to detain UN staff. The Israeli military bulldozers caused heavy damage to the UN armored vehicles. All the staff and the convoy were later released and returned safely to the UN base.
This grave incident is the most recent in a string of violations against UN personnel that have occurred despite prior notice—such as shooting at convoys, killing and targeting hundreds of UN employees, and detaining several of them—which confirms the existence of a deliberate plan to obstruct relief and humanitarian efforts in the Strip, which suffers from grave and deteriorating health and humanitarian crises.
Deliberately initiating heavy military assaults during the vaccination campaign will undoubtedly make it more difficult for Palestinian families to get to health facilities and raise their anxiety, which might lead them to refrain entirely from going to these centers. This indicates that Israel has a clear and deliberate intention to thwart efforts to combat the virus and undermine the vaccination campaign.
Additionally, these attacks are part of a larger plan aimed at exacerbating the man-made humanitarian crisis currently plaguing the Gaza Strip, preventing the alleviation of Palestinian suffering there, increasing the risk to the lives of Palestinian children and society at large, and intensifying the comprehensive crime of genocide that Israel is committing there.
The Euro-Med called on the international community to pressure Israel to immediately cease its military assaults in order to guarantee that the polio vaccination campaign is carried out as quickly and thoroughly as possible.
It further held Israel full responsibility for protecting the lives and safety of Palestinian children from the virus, as this crisis is primarily the result of the crime of genocide it has been committing against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023, which includes the destruction of basic infrastructure and the health sector, repeated forced displacement, and deprivation of all elements of human life, in addition to the ongoing arbitrary and comprehensive blockade
