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Northern Gaza-bound UN convoy stopped ahead of polio vaccination campaign in the area – WHO

Safe and sustained access is essential for the success of the polio vaccination campaign in Northern Gaza and UN humanitarians will try again to reach the area with fuel following an attempt blocked by the Israeli military, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

A UN convoy on its way to the north of the Strip was stopped on Monday by Israeli forces and “after waiting for eight hours, this mission had to be aborted,” WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević told reporters in Geneva.

The convoy was composed of two missions, Mr. Jašarević explained. One was bringing fuel and vehicles for the third phase of the polio campaign starting on Tuesday in the north of the Strip, following the vaccination of more than 446,000 children in central and southern Gaza earlier this month. Another WHO team was trying to bring desperately needed fuel to Gaza City’s embattled Al-Shifa hospital. The enclave’s largest medical centre reopened its emergency department in early September after its destruction in an Israeli raid in November 2023 following claims that Palestinian armed groups were using the site for military purposes.

“This is not an isolated incident,” according to Mr. Jašarević, who deplored the lack of a “functioning deconfliction mechanism,” 11 months into the conflict. Between 7 and 10 September, UN health agency teams tried to reach Al-Shifa hospital four times with no success. “But we will try again today,” the WHO spokesperson said. “We really do our best, but this is a pattern: in August the number of denied requests for access doubled compared to previous months,” he insisted.

Access is required for some 200,000 children to receive their first dose of the oral polio vaccine by 12 September in parts of northern Gaza in which humanitarian pauses have been agreed. WHO confirmed that vaccines, cold chain equipment and finger markers were delivered to the area on Monday.

Medical staff are proceeding with the administration of vaccines despite the dire need for fuel for the movement of vehicles for vaccination teams.

But the health needs in Gaza “are immense and go well beyond polio,” Mr. Jašarević said. The little fuel that is available is desperately needed not only by hospitals, but also by bakeries and desalination plants. Northern Gaza’s Indonesian hospital has had to shut down some of its services in order to prolong the working hours of other departments, according to WHO. “Health workers have been faced with this challenge on how best to use the little fuel they have,” Mr. Jašarević emphasized. “These are choices that health workers should never be making. They should have all necessary conditions to perform lifesaving activities.”

Once the first round of the polio vaccination campaign wraps up in northern Gaza, a second dose will need to be administered four weeks later. The campaign was launched on 1 September, following the confirmation that a baby had been partially paralyzed by type 2 polio virus last month, the first case detected in the territory in 25 years.

Routine immunizations and other vital health services have been impeded by Israel’s military campaign in Gaza following Hamas’ attacks in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage. The resulting war in Gaza has killed more than 40,900 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s health authorities.

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Gaza UN convoy blocked - WHO

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