'Mission accomplished' in central Gaza as polio vaccination teams prepare to head south

Administering vaccines in the south expected to be as difficult, UN says

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The UN said it has accomplished its mission to vaccinate children in central Gaza against the poliovirus, with its teams preparing to head south for the second leg of the first round of doses starting on Thursday.

At least 187,000 children were vaccinated in central Gaza during the first three days of the campaign, surpassing the goal of 156,500 for the area, the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday. Three UN agencies and Gaza's Ministry of Health are working together to inoculate 640,000 children under 10 in all of Gaza, after a baby contracted the disease, paralysing his left leg. It was the first confirmed case since polio was eradicated from the occupied Palestinian territories 25 years ago.

"We have achieved and even exceeded the target because there were many children that were not necessarily registered due to a large number of internally displaced persons," Unicef spokesman Jonathan Crickx told The National from Jerusalem. "Mission is accomplished in the middle area."

While a staggered eight-hour pause in fighting was declared in areas where the vaccination campaign was being introduced, on Wednesday a UN official on the ground reported hearing more air strikes than in the first three days of the campaign. It was not immediately clear whether the bombardment was taking place in areas included in the pause.

The teams are wrapping up in central Gaza and administering some final vaccinations, with more than 510 people going "tent to tent", Louise Wateridge, senior communications officer at the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), told The National from central Gaza on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, Palestinian news agencies on the ground reported Israeli strikes in the Rafah area of southern Gaza, destroying entire residential blocks. The number of casualties was not immediately determined.

"The south is expected to pose the same level of difficulty as the middle area," Ms Wateridge said. Families in the area are keen to have their children inoculated, she added. "They are asking us when the vaccine will be available to them, which is a good sign."

At least 200,000 children are expected to be vaccinated in the south, Ms Wateridge said. The World Health Organisation has called it a "wildly complex" campaign.

At least 40,800 people have been killed and 94,291 injured since the war began in Gaza on October 7.