The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, urged Israel on Thursday to allow the resumption of the polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip, particularly in the north of the territory, interrupted after intensive bombings against Hamas targets.
“It is urgent that this happens in the coming days, and we are looking to Israel to facilitate this action,” the secretary of state said at a press conference.
The World Health Organization (WHO) launched a vaccination campaign in Gaza on September 1, after the confirmation of the first case of polio in 25 years in the Palestinian territory.
Receive our daily edition for free by email so you don’t miss the best news. Free registration!
A first round of vaccinations was completed and the second round – essential to boost immunity – began as planned on October 14, first in central Gaza and then in the south, enabled by humanitarian pauses in the fighting .
But the WHO said last week it had been forced to postpone the final phase in the north due to “intense bombardment”, making conditions on the ground “impossible”.
According to the WHO, 452,000 children have been vaccinated in central and southern Gaza, and 119,000 children in the north are awaiting their second dose.
“One of the things that has worked well in recent months is the polio vaccination campaign for hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza,” said Mr. Blinken.
“But for this campaign to be completed, we have to complete the second round of vaccinations, and these vaccinations must come within a certain period after the end of the first round,” he observed.
Washington threatened in mid-October to suspend part of its military aid if Israel did not improve access to humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians in the devastated Gaza Strip within 30 days.
Mr. Blinken assured that the United States, Israel’s primary military and political supporter, was watching “very carefully” how Israel complied with this request.
“There has been real progress, but it is not enough, and we are working every day to make sure that Israel is doing what it needs to do to ensure that this aid reaches the people who need it,” he said. -he added.
You are one of our loyal readers
We are glad you read X articles from Times of Israël last month.
This is why we created the Times of Israeleleven years ago (nine years for the French version): offering informed readers like you unique information on Israel and the Jewish world.
Today we have a favor to ask you. Unlike other media outlets, our website is accessible to everyone. But the journalism work we do comes at a price, so we ask readers who care about our work to support us by joining the ToI community.
With the amount of your choice, you can help us provide quality journalism while benefiting from reading the Times of Israël without advertisements.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, editor-in-chief and founder of The Times of Israel
Join the Times of Israel community Join the Times of Israel community Already a member? Log in to no longer see this message
