Israel Partners With UNICEF on Polio Vaccinations, Clean Water

Latest Developments

UNICEF is on track to begin a polio vaccination campaign in Gaza on August 31, building on clean water cooperation with Israel that began in early July. On August 25, more than 1.25 million doses of the polio vaccination arrived in Gaza, days after the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a 10-month-old in the enclave had been paralyzed with polio — the first case of the virus in Gaza in 25 years. The vaccination campaign is part of a coordinated effort between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), WHO, and UN agencies to facilitate humanitarian support of Palestinians in Gaza despite the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Expert Analysis

“Every time a United Nations official tries to invent a new pretext for demanding Israel surrender to Hamas, Israel finds a way to facilitate additional humanitarian support for Palestinians in Gaza — increasingly without Hamas’s partner UNRWA playing a lead role. Hamas might want more kids in Gaza to get polio, but Israel clearly doesn’t.” — Richard Goldberg, FDD Senior Advisor

“Despite the terrible toll on Gazans, Hamas is intent on continuing the war. In the past week, Hamas has continued to fire rockets at Israeli communities from civilian areas in Gaza while rejecting yet another ceasefire deal. Hamas insists on fighting this war to the bitter end, frustrating efforts to provide much-needed humanitarian assistance to those in need and keeping two million Gazans and over 100 Israelis hostage in the process.” — Enia Krivine, Senior Director of FDD’s Israel Program and National Security Network

New Efforts to Prevent the Spread of Polio, Boost Drinking Water

The WHO first detected the polio virus in wastewater samples collected from Gaza in June, sparking fears of an imminent outbreak. In July, the agency said that the virus was “isolated” and that “no associated paralytic cases have been detected.” Israel on July 2 connected a power line to a main desalination plant in Gaza to boost the supply of clean drinking water to the strip. A statement issued by the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) — an Israeli Ministry of Defense agency focused on the supply of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territories — said that the plant, located in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, was directly connected to the Israeli grid and would be managed by UNICEF. “The increase in [the] supply of water is a further step taken to support humanitarian efforts for Gazan residents, and to prevent contamination and outbreaks of disease during the summer months,” the COGAT statement announced.

Israel’s Ongoing Humanitarian Efforts

Israel has repeatedly maintained that it is “at war with Hamas, not the people of Gaza” and that “it places no limits on the amount of aid that can enter Gaza.” Since the Gaza war began, Israel has facilitated more than 47,000 trucks carrying nearly 1 million tons of aid into Gaza. Aid deliveries include food, water, shelter equipment, medical supplies, fuel, and cooking gas. Moreover, results from a scientific study published on June 2 indicate that food shipments to Gaza are enough to feed the enclave’s entire population of approximately 2.4 million. The study, authored by a group of Israeli academics and public health officials, also found that the average “per capita per day energy supplied was 3,374 [calories],” which exceeds the internationally accepted Sphere guidelines for humanitarian efforts. According to the Sphere guidelines, the average recommended daily nutritional intake is 2,100 calories per person.

Related Analysis

“Aiming to Boost Supply of Clean Water, Israel Connects Power Line to Gaza Desalination Plant,” FDD Flash Brief

“Study Finds Food Aid to Gaza Exceeds International Standards,” FDD Flash Brief

“Israel helped avert a famine in Gaza but gets no credit,” by David Adesnik