Escalating Violence in Gaza Amid Urgent Polio Vaccination Campaign

Escalating Conflict in Gaza Amid Urgent Vaccination Efforts

Israeli airstrikes continued to ravage the Gaza Strip overnight into Saturday, resulting in the tragic deaths of over a dozen individuals, as reported by local authorities and hospital sources. This surge in violence coincides with a critical moment for health workers who are concluding the second phase of an urgent polio vaccination campaign aimed at preventing a widespread outbreak in the region.

The vaccination initiative was activated following the alarming confirmation of the first polio case in Gaza in 25 years, identified in a 10-month-old boy whose leg is now paralyzed. Launched by the U.N. health agency alongside local partners, the nine-day campaign started last Sunday in central Gaza and aims to reach an ambitious target of vaccinating 640,000 children under the age of 10. This effort unfolds against the backdrop of a devastating war that has severely compromised Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure.

The second phase of vaccination efforts in southern Gaza reached its final day on Saturday, with plans to move northward and conclude on Monday, as stated by the Gaza Health Ministry. They have designated numerous vaccination points across the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah to facilitate this critical public health initiative.

Meanwhile, Israel has intensified its military offensive. In the central Gaza urban refugee camp of Nuseirat, Al-Awda Hospital reported receiving the bodies of nine individuals who lost their lives in two separate airstrikes. One strike targeted a residential building early Saturday, claiming the lives of four people and injuring at least ten others. Additionally, five fatalities were reported from a strike on a house in western Nuseirat.

Further complicating the situation, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the main medical facility in central Gaza located in the town of Deir al-Balah, reported that a woman and her two children were killed in another airstrike on a house situated in the nearby urban refugee camp of Bureij early Saturday morning.

In the northern Gaza Strip, an airstrike targeted a school that had been converted into a shelter for displaced individuals in the town of Jabaliya, resulting in at least four deaths and injuring approximately two dozen others, according to Gaza’s Civil Defence authority, which operates under the governance of Hamas. The Israeli military claimed that it struck a Hamas command post located within the former school compound. Reports from the Gaza Health Ministry indicate that the total number of injured individuals has climbed to nearly 94,000.

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