The Ministry of Health in Gaza confirmed today, Sunday, that 443 thousand children received the first dose of the polio vaccine, while it has been waiting for 4 days for Israeli approval of the coordination request to reach 7 other areas in the cities of Khan Yunis and Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Director General of Primary Care at the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, Musa Abed, said, "443,000 children received the first dose against polio in the Gaza Strip, which constitutes 69 percent of the total number of children under the age of 10."

Abed added, "The first phase of the vaccination campaign in the central governorate achieved results that exceeded expectations, as 195,000 children were vaccinated, and this number exceeds the expected number of vaccinations, which was 160,000 children."

He attributed this to "the increase in the number of displaced persons in the central Gaza Strip, due to ground military operations in other areas and Israeli evacuation orders issued after the vaccination campaign implementation plan was prepared."

Abed pointed out that "there are 4 fixed vaccination points in the central governorate, to provide vaccination services to unvaccinated children."

He explained that "the medical teams were able, until Saturday evening, to vaccinate 248 thousand children in the governorates of Rafah and Khan Yunis alone, and work is still underway to complete the campaign and update the statistics after their work ends on Sunday."

Abed explained that "the plan for the vaccination campaign in the southern Gaza Strip aims to vaccinate 300,000 children."

He pointed out that "there are some challenges in coordination in the eastern areas that the Israeli army classifies as red points," meaning unsafe combat zones.

Abed added: “We were able to reach some of these areas and vaccinate children there after coordinating with the Israeli side, but there are other areas that we have not yet obtained approval for, such as the town of Khuza’a, east of Khan Yunis, which our crews were unable to reach due to the occupation’s refusal.”

He continued: "We obtained Israeli approval to access some areas in Rafah and eastern Khan Yunis, but the time period was very short and not sufficient to vaccinate all the targeted children."

He stressed that "the Ministry of Health and partner agencies are still waiting for approval to reach 7 other areas in eastern Khan Yunis and Rafah city, despite the passage of 4 days since submitting the coordination request."

The Director General of Primary Care at the Ministry of Health in Gaza stated that the next phase of the vaccination campaign will start next Tuesday in the northern Gaza Strip.

On August 31, the Ministry of Health in Gaza, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the World Health Organization, and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced, during a press conference at Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip, the launch of a polio vaccination campaign for children under 10 years of age.

On August 16, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a 7-day humanitarian truce to implement a polio campaign targeting 640,000 children, which was directly supported by UNRWA at the time.

This call came after the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the registration of the first confirmed case of polio in the Gaza Strip, in a 10-month-old child.

Over the months of war, health and human rights organizations have warned of the spread of diseases and epidemics in the Strip due to the shortage of medicines and vaccinations, and the difficult health and living conditions experienced by the displaced.