CAIRO: The threat of polio is rising fast in the Gaza Strip, prompting aid groups to call for an urgent pause in the war so they can ramp up vaccinations and head off a full-blown outbreak.
One case has been confirmed, others are suspected and the virus was detected in wastewater in six different locations in July.
Polio was eradicated in Gaza 25 years ago, but vaccinations plunged after the war began 10 months ago and the territory has become a breeding ground for the virus, aid groups say. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are crowded into tent camps lacking clean water or proper disposal of sewage and garbage.
To avert a widespread outbreak, aid groups are preparing to vaccinate more than 600,000 children in the coming weeks. They say the ambitious vaccination plans are impossible, though, without a pause in the fighting between Israel and Hamas.
A possible ceasefire deal couldn’t come soon enough.
“We are anticipating and preparing for the worst-case scenario of a polio outbreak in the coming weeks or month,” Francis Hughes, the Gaza response director at CARE International, told The Associated Press.
The World Health Organization and UNICEF, the United Nations children’s agency, said in a joint statement Friday that, at a minimum, a seven-day pause is needed to carry out a mass vaccination plan.
The UN aims to bring 1.6 million doses of polio vaccine into Gaza, where sanitation and water systems have been destroyed, leaving open pits of human waste in crowded tent camps. Families living in the camps have little clean water or even soap to maintain hygiene and sometimes use wastewater to drink or clean clothes and dishes.
At least 225 informal waste disposal sites and landfills have cropped up around Gaza — many close to where families are sheltering, according to a report released in July by PAX, a Netherlands-based nonprofit that used satellite imagery to track the sites.
Polio, which is highly contagious and transmits mainly through contact with contaminated feces, water or food, can cause difficulty breathing and irreversible paralysis, usually in the legs. It strikes young children in particular and is sometimes fatal.
The aid group Mercy Corps estimates some 50,000 babies born since the war began have not been immunized against polio.
WHO and UNICEF said Friday that three children are suspected of being infected and that their stool samples were being tested by a laboratory in Jordan. The Ministry of Health in Ramallah in the West Bank said late Friday that tests conducted in Jordan confirmed one case in a 10-month-old child in Gaza.
“This is very concerning,” UNICEF spokesperson Ammar Ammar said Saturday. “It is impossible to carry out the vaccination in an active war zone and the alternative would be unconscionable for the children in Gaza and the whole region.”
Aid workers anticipate the number of suspected cases will rise, and worry that the disease could be hard to contain without urgent intervention.
“We are not optimistic because we know that doctors could also be missing the warning signs,” said Hughes of CARE International.
Health workers in Gaza are gearing up for a mass vaccination campaign to begin at the end of August and continue into September. The goal is to immunize 640,000 children under the age of 10 over two rounds of vaccinations, according to WHO.
The Israeli military body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, which goes by the acronym COGAT, said it is “preparing to support a comprehensive vaccination campaign.” The military said a vaccination campaign has begun for all ground troops and that it was working with various organizations to bring more vaccines into Gaza.
Hamas said in a statement Friday that it would support a seven-day truce to facilitate the vaccinations. Ceasefire talks resume in Cairo next week.
The alarm over polio was first raised when the WHO announced in July that sewage samples collected from six locations in Khan Younis and Deir Al-Balah, in the south and center of Gaza, tested positive for a variant of the virus used in vaccines. The weakened form of the virus used in vaccines can mutate into a stronger version and cause an outbreak in areas that lack proper immunization, according to WHO.
The only countries where polio is endemic are Afghanistan and Pakistan. But outbreaks of the vaccine-derived virus have occurred in war-torn Ukraine and Yemen, where conditions aren’t nearly as bad as they are in Gaza.
Part of the challenge in Gaza, where polio hasn’t been seen in a quarter-century, is to raise awareness so that health workers recognize symptoms, the UN says. The territory’s health care system has been devastated by the war, and workers are overwhelmed treating the wounded and patients sick with diarrhea and other ailments.
Before the war, 99 percent of Gaza’s population was vaccinated against polio. That figure is now 86 percent, according to WHO. The goal is to get polio immunization levels in Gaza back above 95 percent.
While more than 440,000 doses of polio vaccine were brought into Gaza in December, that supply has diminished to just over 86,000, according to Hamid Jafari, director of polio eradication for the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region.
The 1.6 million oral doses being brought into Gaza will be a more advanced version of the vaccine that is less prone to mutating into an outbreak, the WHO said.
Getting the vaccine into Gaza is just the first step.
UN workers face difficulties retrieving medical supplies and other aid because of Israel’s military assaults, fighting between troops and Hamas, and increasing lawlessness that has led to the looting of convoys.
Also, vaccines must be kept refrigerated, which has become difficult in Gaza, where electricity is scarce. About 15-20 refrigerated trucks serve all of Gaza, and they also must be used to transport food and other medical supplies, said a senior Israeli army official with COGAT who was not authorized to talk with media and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Palestinians also face difficulties getting around. Their inability to reach health facilities will be an additional obstacle to the vaccination campaign, said Sameer Sah of Medical Aid for Palestinians.
“There’s no transport system. The roads have been destroyed and you have quadcopters shooting at people,” said Sah, referring to Israeli drones that often carry out strikes. Israel says its strikes target Hamas militants.
WHO said a pause in the fighting is vital to enabling “children and families to safely reach health facilities and community outreach workers to get to children who cannot access health facilities.”
Only about a third of Gaza’s 36 hospitals and 40 percent of its primary health care facilities are functioning, according to the UN But the WHO and UNICEF say their vaccination campaign will be carried out in every municipality in Gaza, with help from 2,700 workers.
Aid groups in Gaza aim to avert a polio outbreak with a surge of vaccinations
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Aid groups in Gaza aim to avert a polio outbreak with a surge of vaccinations
![](https://www.arabnews.pk/sites/default/files/styles/n_670_395/public/main-image/2024/08/17/4514800-1326638841.jpg?itok=Jf3fs9q-)
- “We are anticipating and preparing for the worst-case scenario of a polio outbreak,” said Francis Hughes, CARE International’s response director in Gaza
- Health workers in Gaza are gearing up for a mass vaccination campaign to begin at the end of August and continue into September
Gazan child amputee dreams big after evacuation to Qatar
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- Qatar has taken in some injured Gazans for treatment as it tries to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas
In a small apartment in Doha, capital of the wealthy Gulf Arab state, Ajjour’s mother slowly eases him into his uniform to help him get ready for school. It will take some time to fit him with artificial limbs.
The rocket hit as he was walking away from his Gaza home in December with his father and mother, he said.
“I was lying on the ground, I didn’t know what hit me, I didn’t know that I lost my arms” said Ajjour.
He was operated on in Gaza with limited anaesthetic, waking up from the operation in great pain and with his arms gone, his mother said.
Yet he is one of the lucky ones, escaping the shattered territory, where many hospitals have been destroyed and doctors say they often have to perform surgery without any anaesthetic and pain killers.
Qatar has taken in some injured Gazans for treatment as it tries to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas along with the United States and Egypt that would see the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and some Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. There is still no sign of agreement.
Ajjour longs for Gaza, which was vibrant before the conflict despite widespread poverty and high unemployment in what was one of the world’s most densely populated places.
His home was destroyed in the Israeli offensive triggered by an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas-led militants who killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
The offensive has killed at least 41,118 Palestinians and wounded 95,125, according to the Gaza health ministry. Nearly two million people have been displaced and the territory has become a wasteland. Israel says it does not target civilians, accusing Hamas militants of hiding among them, allegations the militants deny.
“I want Gaza to be beautiful again,” Ajjour says.
At the long-established Palestinian School in Doha, he sits patiently while his classmates write things down and raises his voice alongside them as they answer a teacher’s questions.
The school psychologist, Hanin Al Salamat, sees in him a source of inspiration. “He gives us strength,” she says.
He refuses to let physical limitations define him.
“I will keep trying everything,” he says with conviction. “I will become a pilot, and I will play soccer with my friends.”
Turkiye probing killing of activist in occupied West Bank
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- Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was shot dead last week while demonstrating against Israeli settlements in the West Bank
- The United Nations rights office has accused Israeli forces of shooting the US-Turkish activist in the head
ANKARA: Turkiye is investigating the killing of a US-Turkish activist during a protest in West Bank, the justice minister said Thursday, adding that Ankara would press the UN to take immediate action.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was shot dead last week while demonstrating against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank town of Beita.
The settlements are illegal under international law but supported by right-wing members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
The United Nations rights office has accused Israeli forces of shooting Eygi in the head. The Israeli army has acknowledged opening fire in the area and said it was looking into the case.
“Turkiye has opened an investigation,” Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said.
He also said Turkiye would take the case to the United Nations and push for an independent inquiry into her death.
“We will work to ensure that the (UN) Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial and Arbitrary Executions takes immediate action, and that an independent commission of inquiry is established and prepare a report,” he said.
Tunc said Turkiye would forward that report to the UN Human Rights Council and to the ongoing case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
“We will continue to defend the right of our sister Aysenur and our Palestinian brothers,” he added.
Turkiye’s foreign ministry said the formal procedures for the transfer of the body had been concluded through its embassy in Tel Aviv and consulate in Jerusalem.
“The body of the deceased will arrive in Turkiye tomorrow,” it said, adding: “We once again condemn this murder committed by the genocidal Netanyahu government.”
Eygi’s family is still waiting for her body to arrive and is hoping to bury her in the southwestern town of Didim on Friday.
“It’s sad but it’s also a source of pride for Didim,” Eygi’s uncle Ali Tikkim, 67, said on Wednesday.
“It’s important that a young girl, martyred and sensitive to the world is buried here.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to ensure “that Aysenur Ezgi’s death does not go unpunished.”
Iran president arrives in Iraqi Kurdistan on day two of visit
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- It is Pezeshkian’s first foreign trip abroad since he took office in July
- Tehran in 2022 repeatedly carried out strikes on armed groups in Kurdistan
Irbil: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived Thursday in Iraqi Kurdistan to meet the autonomous region’s leaders, on the second day of a visit aimed at deepening ties with the neighboring country.
It is Pezeshkian’s first foreign trip abroad since he took office in July.
Stepping off his plane in Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, Pezeshkian was welcomed by regional president Nechirvan Barzani on a red carpet lined with Kurdish Peshmerga forces standing at attention with rifles at their sides.
Pezeshkian held talks with Barzani and Kurdistan’s prime minister, Masrour Barzani, before heading to Sulaimaniyah, a city where the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) political party wields influence including in the local security services.
On Wednesday, the first leg of his three-day visit, Pezeshkian announced in Baghdad the signing of more than a dozen agreements to strengthen ties between Iran and Iraq.
His trip comes at a time of heightened tensions in the Middle East due to the war in Gaza, which has drawn in Iran-backed armed groups and complicated Iraq’s relations with the United States.
Iran’s ties with Iraqi Kurdistan have improved in recent months, aided by efforts to neutralize Iranian Kurdish opposition groups, which have long operated in the region.
Tehran in 2022 repeatedly carried out strikes on armed groups in Kurdistan, before Iraq in March 2023 signed a security agreement with Iran. Baghdad committed to disarm these groups and relocate them from border areas to camps.
“We have succeeded... in regulating the security situation in the border areas,” Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia Al-Sudani said on Wednesday, reiterating Iraq’s refusal to allow any acts of aggression to be launched against Iran from its territory.
Iran had accused the Iranian Kurdish opposition of smuggling weapons from Iraq and launching attacks on its security forces.
It also accused these movements of fueling protests that shook Iran after the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurd arrested by the morality police.
War monitor says Israeli strike in Syria’s Golan kills two
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- The Israeli army did not immediately comment on the reported strike
Beirut: A Syria war monitor said an Israeli airstrike on Thursday in Quneitra province in the Syria-controlled Golan Heights killed two people, days after major raids elsewhere in the country.
“An Israeli air strike targeted a vehicle” on the Damascus-Quneitra road, “killing two people,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, without identifying them.
A local security source told AFP that “two charred bodies were removed” from the vehicle that was hit.
The Israeli army did not immediately comment on the reported strike.
Israel seized much of the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and later annexed it in a move largely unrecognized by the international community.
Thursday’s strike came days after raids blamed on Israel killed 18 people in the central province of Hama, according to Syrian authorities.
The Observatory said those strikes killed 27 people, including six civilians, and targeted a “scientific research area” and other sites in the province’s Masyaf area.
Israel declined to comment on those reported strikes.
Hezbollah has repeatedly targeted military positions in the Israeli-held Golan in recent months as part of attacks from Lebanon in support of ally Hamas following the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.
Syria has sought to stay out of the Israel-Hamas conflict, whose fallout has raised fears of a broader regional war.
Limited rocket attacks from Syria by Hezbollah-allied fighters have targeted the Israeli-held Golan since October.
Since Syria’s civil war erupted in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in the country, mainly targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters, including from Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Israeli authorities rarely comment on individual strikes in Syria, but have repeatedly said they will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence there.
Israeli raids on Syria surged after Hamas’s October 7 attack then eased somewhat after an April 1 strike blamed on Israel hit the Iranian consular building in Damascus, prompting Iran’s first-ever direct attack against Israel.
US sanctions Lebanese network over alleged oil, LPG smuggling for Hezbollah
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- The sanctions target three people, five companies and two vessels
WASHINGTON: The Biden administration on Wednesday issued sanctions on a Lebanese network it accused of smuggling oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to help fund the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
The sanctions target three people, five companies and two vessels that the US Treasury Department said were overseen by a senior leader of Hezbollah’s finance team and used profits from illicit LPG shipments to Syria to aid generate revenue for the group.
Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley Smith, in a statement, said Hezbollah “continues to launch rockets into Israel and fuel regional instability, choosing to prioritize funding violence over taking care of the people it claims to care about, including the tens of thousands displaced in southern Lebanon.”