A polio vaccination campaign began in the center of the Gaza Strip today, a day before a humanitarian pause in fighting to allow it to take effect.
"Teams from the Ministry of Health, UNRWA and non-governmental organizations began today a polio vaccination campaign in the center of the Gaza Strip," said the director of emergency aid at the Hamas government's Ministry of Health, Musa Abed.
The first case of polio was recently confirmed in a ten-month-old child in the Gaza Strip, where the disease was eradicated 25 years ago.
Due to the war in the Gaza Strip, which began on October 7 last year with the Hamas attack on Israel, the United Nations sent 1,2 million doses of vaccines that are taken orally in the form of drops.
Two doses of vaccines are required, one month apart.
The World Health Organization said on Thursday that Israeli authorities had agreed to several "humanitarian pauses" of three days each in Gaza to allow 640 children to be vaccinated against polio.
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Israeli strikes killed at least 48 people in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Palestinian health authorities said, as clashes took place in central and southern areas of the territory ahead of the planned start of a polio vaccination campaign, the Guardian reports.
Yusef Abu Al Resh, Gaza's deputy health minister, said vaccination teams would try to reach as many areas as possible to ensure widespread coverage, but stressed that only a comprehensive ceasefire could guarantee enough children would be vaccinated.
"If the international community really wants this campaign to succeed, it should call for a ceasefire, knowing that this virus does not stop and can reach anywhere," he told reporters at Naser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
On Saturday, as more than 2.000 medical and social workers prepared for the start of the campaign, doctors in Nuseirat, one of eight historic refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, said separate Israeli attacks had killed at least 19 people, including nine members of the same family.
Medical sources said more than 30 other people were killed in a series of attacks in other parts of Gaza.
Residents and militant sources said fighters from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other groups were fighting Israeli forces in northern Gaza, in the Zeytun neighborhood, where tanks have been present for days, and in Rafah, near the border with Egypt.
The Israeli army said in a statement that it continued operations in the central and southern part of the Gaza Strip. They said troops killed militants and dismantled military infrastructure in Gaza, while locating weapons and killing gunmen in Tel Al Sultan, west of Rafah.
In Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, families were returning to their areas after the army ended a 22-day offensive it said was aimed at preventing Hamas from regrouping. Footage shows that large areas have been razed to the ground, and buildings and infrastructure have been destroyed.
Doctors said they found at least nine bodies in the area where the army was operating.
At least 40.691 Palestinians have been killed and 94.060 wounded in Israel's military offensive in Gaza since October 7, the Gaza health ministry said in a regular report on Saturday.
The Israeli army detained, in the last 24 hours, 22 Palestinians during raids on several locations in the occupied West Bank and in East Jerusalem, the Association of Palestinian Prisoners announced.
They said that Israeli soldiers continued raids in occupied East Jerusalem and various cities in the West Bank, Anadolia reports.
It is said that former prisoners are among those detained.
The large-scale attacks launched by the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank have been going on for four days, and so far 70 Palestinians have been detained in the area.
On Wednesday, the Israeli army launched the largest military operation since 2002 against the cities of Tulkarm and Jenin, as well as the Al Fara refugee camp near Tubas, killing 16 Palestinians.
According to Palestinian officials, since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, at least 670 Palestinians have been killed, nearly 5,4 wounded, and more than 10,3 arrested in the occupied West Bank.
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The army and settlers have killed 600 Palestinians in the West Bank since the beginning of the war in Gaza, while the local police were unprepared and powerless to protect the population.
Because of this, militants with weapons are more inspiring to the inhabitants of that territory than the omnipresent feeling of powerlessness.
The U.N. health agency and partners will launch a campaign Sunday to vaccinate 640.000 Palestinian children in Gaza against polio, an ambitious effort amid a devastating war that has destroyed the territory's health system, the Associated Press reports.
The campaign is being launched after the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years was reported - in a XNUMX-month-old who now has a paralyzed leg. The World Health Organization (WHO) says the presence of a case of paralysis indicates there could be hundreds of others who are infected but show no symptoms.
Vaccination will not be easy. The roads in Gaza are mostly destroyed, the hospitals are badly damaged, and the population is scattered in isolated pockets.
The WHO said on Thursday it had reached an agreement with Israel on a limited ceasefire to allow the vaccination campaign to take place. However, such a large-scale campaign will face great challenges in a territory covered in rubble, where 90 percent of Palestinians have been displaced.
The three-day vaccination campaign in central Gaza will begin on Sunday, during a "humanitarian interruption" that lasts from 6 am to 15 pm, and another day may be added if necessary, said Dr. Rick Pepperkorn, the WHO representative in the Palestinian territories.
In coordination with Israeli authorities, the campaign will then expand to southern and northern Gaza during similar disruptions, he told a news conference via video from Deir Al Balah in central Gaza.
According to WHO data, the campaign aims to vaccinate 640.000 children under the age of 10. About 1,3 million doses of the vaccine have passed through the Kerem Shalom border crossing and are currently being held in "cold chain" at a warehouse in Deir Al Balah. This means that the warehouse can maintain the right temperature so that the vaccines do not lose their effectiveness.
Another shipment of 400.000 doses should arrive in Gaza soon.
Vaccines will be transported to the distribution points by a team of over 2.000 medical volunteers, said Amar Amar, UNICEF spokesperson.
The world football organization FIFA has again postponed a decision on the Palestinian request to suspend Israel from international football because of the war in Gaza, the Guardian reports.
FIFA said late on Friday that it would consider proposals from the Palestine Football Association (PFA) against the Israel Football Association (IFA) in October.
The PFA tabled a motion to suspend Israel in May, after which FIFA ordered an urgent legal assessment and promised to consider the matter at an extraordinary meeting of its council in July.
FIFA has now moved the assessment to October.
"FIFA has received an independent legal assessment of the Palestinian Football Association's proposal against Israel. This assessment will be forwarded to the FIFA Council for review so that the subject can be discussed at the next meeting, which will be held in October," the world football association said.
FIFA declined to provide further details on the assessment and to specify when exactly in October the meeting would take place.
The Palestinian proposal accuses the IFA of complicity in the violation of international law by the Israeli government, discrimination against Arab players, and the inclusion of clubs located in Palestinian territory in its league. The IFA rejected the allegations.
The PFA said at least 92 Palestinian players were killed in the war, football infrastructure was destroyed, leagues were suspended and their national team had to play World Cup qualifiers abroad.
In its proposal, the PFA wanted FIFA to adopt "appropriate sanctions" against Israeli teams, including the national team and clubs.
Israel's military said on Saturday that its forces killed two people in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank, after one person entered an Israeli settlement and another shot at soldiers after her car exploded, Reuters reports.
Israel's emergency services said two men were wounded in gunfire during the incidents, but did not identify them. There were no immediate comments from the Palestinian side.
"Terrorists tried to run over a security guard at the entrance to the Karmey Kur settlement a short time ago and entered the settlement," the army said, referring to the Israeli settlement.
Soldiers who arrived at the scene killed one assailant who shot at them and are currently searching for the others, the army said.
In another incident, a car caught fire and exploded at a gas station, the military said. It said that the forces sent to the scene "shot and eliminated the terrorist who got out of the vehicle and tried to attack them." The military said it was too early to say whether the incidents were linked.
Hamas issued a statement on Saturday praising what it called a "double heroic operation" in the West Bank, saying it was "a clear message that the resistance will remain strong, long-lasting and steadfast as long as the brutal occupiers continue their aggression and attacks on our people and country". However, the group did not claim direct responsibility for the attacks.
Violence in the West Bank, already on the rise before the Gaza war, has escalated recently, with increased Israeli military raids and violence between settlers and Palestinians in the streets.
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