United Nations officials on Wednesday praised a limited pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas as a way to prevent war. polio vaccination for children These moments are rare moments of hope in the nearly year-long war in Gaza.
united nations world health organization They say In Gaza, 187,000 children have been vaccinated against polio, with a final target of 640,000. The WHO and its partners launched the campaign this week after Gaza recently reported its first polio case in 25 years – a 10-month-old boy – who is now paralysed in one leg.
The boy’s mother, Naveen Abu Al-Zidyan, told in an interview with CBS News Last week she said she had been able to do very little for her son, Abdul Rahman, because he had polio.
“We haven’t given him any treatment. We live in a tent and there is no medicine,” El-Zidyan, 35, told CBS News on August 27.
“Abdul Rahman was supposed to get vaccinated on the first day of the war, but our house was targeted and his medical booklet was left at home,” she said. “Since we were moving from one place to another, I could not get him vaccinated.”
Israel has said the vaccination program will continue until Monday and will run for eight hours per day.
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Top UN officials on peacekeeping and humanitarian affairs spoke on Wednesday at a meeting requested by Israel, backed by its allies, veto-holding permanent council members France, Great Britain and the United States. Israel’s ambassador on Wednesday focused on those taken hostage during Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel and the recent killing of six detainees.
Algeria, which is a member of the 15-member council until next year, also requested that the UN body meet to discuss the broader situation in the Palestinian territories.
Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, and Edem Wosornu, Director of the Operations and Advocacy Division at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, described the polio-inspired ceasefire as a rare ray of hope. Representatives from France, Britain, the United States and other countries echoed similar sentiments.
“This does not have to be the case. In fact, in the last few days there have been indications that humanitarian objectives can motivate positive steps,” Vosornu told the council.
“This vaccination campaign shows that it is possible to allow humanitarian workers to work on the ground,” Nicolas de Riviere, France’s ambassador to the United Nations, told the council. “This must become the rule.”
Health officials have expressed concern about the spread of disease in the besieged region, as the war has wreaked a humanitarian catastrophe, with people crammed into filthy tent camps and dirty water flowing into the streets.
Ambassador Samuel Zbogar of Slovenia, who is president of the Security Council for September, told reporters on Tuesday that there was “growing concern within the council” about the issue. Lack of ceasefire The hostages were released and an agreement was signed to stop the violence.
The Security Council approved a resolution in June backing a ceasefire plan aimed at ending the war, which Russia abstained from.
“It has to move forward one way or another,” Zbogar said of completing the deal or exploring other options.
Hamas attacks on October 7 killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages. More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military retaliation, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
