Health official says polio vaccine campaign begins in war-torn Gaza

Gaza Strip — A health official said a polio vaccination campaign had begun in Gaza on Saturday after the war-torn territory recorded its first case of the disease in a quarter of a century.

Local health officials along with the UN and NGOs "are starting today the polio vaccination campaign in the central region", Moussa Abed, director of primary health care at the Gaza health ministry, told AFP.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to a series of three-day "humanitarian pauses" in Gaza to facilitate vaccinations, though officials had earlier said the campaign was expected to start on Sunday.

After beginning in central Gaza, vaccines are set to be administered in southern Gaza and then in northern Gaza. 

The campaign, which involves two doses, aims to cover more than 640,000 children under 10.

Michael Ryan, WHO deputy director-general, told the UN Security Council this week that 1.26 million doses of the oral vaccine had been delivered in Gaza, with another 400,000 still to arrive

The Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry said earlier this month that tests in Jordan had confirmed polio in an unvaccinated 10-month-old baby from central Gaza.

Poliovirus is highly infectious, and most often spread through sewage and contaminated water -- an increasingly common problem in Gaza as the Israel-Hamas war drags on.

The disease mainly affects children under the age of five. It can cause deformities and paralysis, and is potentially fatal.

Bakr Deeb told AFP on Saturday that he brought his three children -- all under 10 -- to a vaccination point despite some initial doubts about its safety.

"I was hesitant at first and very afraid of the safety of this vaccination," he said.

"After the assurances of its safety, and with all the families going to the vaccination points, I decided to go with my children as well, to protect them."

Abed, the health official, stressed on Saturday that the vaccine was "100 percent safe". 

The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas's unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7. Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,691 people in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

Incessant Israeli bombardment has also caused a major humanitarian crisis and devastated the health system.