Polio vaccines give Gaza families all too brief respite from war

A Palestinian child is vaccinated against polio, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, yesterday.

Anxious parents lining up with their children for a polio vaccine in central Gaza were counting down the hours until a pause in fighting ends in the area yesterday, threatening more death and destruction in the 11-month-old war.
As health officials administered the doses, Gazan mother Huda Sheikh Ali wondered what good the polio vaccination campaign could do when her children would soon face more Israeli air strikes and shelling.
“There is no protection for them, in just a short few hours the ceasefire will end and we will return to seeing children bombed and killed. There is no protection from these things,” she said.
“We managed to take a breather for a few hours, for our child…imagine what it would be like with a permanent ceasefire. The children are dying every single day and they are giving us some vaccines for polio?” The campaign was prompted by the discovery of a case of polio in a baby boy last month, the first in the Gaza Strip for 25 years. Israel and Hamas fighters agreed to daily pauses of eight hours in the fighting in pre-specified areas to allow the vaccination programme. No violations have been reported.
But a permanent end to the war is not in sight. Diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire, release hostages held in Gaza and return many Palestinians jailed by Israel have faltered.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3mn people have been uprooted from their homes and many families have moved repeatedly up and down the Gaza Strip in search of safe shelter.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said yesterday it was making good progress in rolling out a polio vaccine, but called for a permanent ceasefire to ease humanitarian suffering.
UNRWA said that three days into the campaign in areas of central Gaza, around 187,000 children had received the vaccine. The campaign will move to other areas of the territory in the second stage.
Palestinians say a key reason for the return of polio is the collapse of Gaza’s health system and the destruction of most of its hospitals during the war. Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes, something the group denies.
Hadeel Darbiyeh, who brought her infant daughter for the polio vaccination, said she shared the pessimism of other parents in Gaza.
“Instead of bringing the vaccines, bring us a solution to stop the war,” she said. “Bring us a solution for the oppressed people who have all been forced to flee their homes and into tents.”