GAZA, (PIC)
The spokesman for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Kazem Abu Khalaf, confirmed that thousands of children in northern Gaza have been deprived of their right to be vaccinated against polio due to the Israeli siege and ongoing aggression in the area.
Abu Khalaf warned about the dangers of abandoning the northern Gaza Strip’s polio vaccination campaign.
He pointed out that the second phase is now suspended in Gaza City and North Gaza governorates due to the Israeli military operations that have escalated early October (2024), “so we decided to postpone it despite the seriousness of the decision.”
More than 105,000 children were denied the second stage of the “polio” dose, Abu Khalaf explained, adding that “the postponement means increasing the time interval between the first and second rounds of vaccination, and this would affect the expected benefit of completing the vaccination in two rounds.”
Given the devastation of the health and medical sector and the spread of diseases, the UNICEF spokesperson stated that “we are racing against time to address the matter and limit the spread of this virus.”
He further said that “the Israeli occupation’s targeting campaign of UNRWA adds to the complexity of the Gaza scene and casts a dark shadow over the entire humanitarian response effort.”
More than a million people rely on UNRWA’s services, he explained.
