WHO Reports Polio Vaccine Targets in Gaza Achieved

Latest Developments

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on September 12 that it has administered the polio vaccination to more than 90 percent of children in Gaza since launching a widespread inoculation campaign on September 1. The WHO’s representative for the Palestinian territories, Rik Peeperkorn, told the media that his agency is “satisfied” with the campaign and “confident” that his agency “probably reached the target,” adding that the WHO is “very much grateful that the area-specific humanitarian pauses have been respected.”

Initially, the WHO aimed to vaccinate approximately 640,000 children, but Peeperkorn clarified that this figure overestimated the size of the target population in Gaza. As of September 11, over 520,000 children across Gaza had received the vaccine.

Expert Analysis

“The International Court of Justice should take note that the democracy falsely accused of genocide has just facilitated an historic polio vaccination campaign to help protect the children of Gaza. South Africa’s antisemitic lawfare at the ICJ should be dismissed with prejudice immediately.” — Richard Goldberg, FDD Senior Advisor

“While Israel does its best to save Israeli and Palestinian lives, Hamas tries its hardest to spread death and destruction on both sides. Israel’s facilitation of the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza — while Hamas needlessly prolongs this war by continuing to hold Israeli hostages — is the latest demonstration of the absurdity of the pro-Hamas blood libels being spread against the Jewish state.” — David May, FDD Research Manager and Senior Research Analyst

Israel, UN Agencies Partner on Vaccine Campaign

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.” On August 23, the 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. Two days later, more than 1.25 million doses of the polio vaccination arrived in Gaza. The vaccination campaign is part of a coordinated effort between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the WHO, and other UN agencies.

On August 28, the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) — an Israeli Ministry of Defense agency focused on the supply of humanitarian aid to the West Bank and Gaza — provided an update on the polio vaccination campaign, noting that cooling equipment had also been transferred, along with flyers to encourage the public to participate. “In the coming days, international and local medical teams will vaccinate children who have not yet been vaccinated against polio at various locations in Gaza,” COGAT noted in a statement. Humanitarian pauses in the fighting in Gaza “will allow the population to reach the medical centers where the vaccinations will be administered,” the statement added.

IDF Focus on Humanitarian Aid

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on August 28 the appointment of Col. Elad Goren to a newly created post coordinating humanitarian relief efforts in Gaza. Goren will serve within the IDF’s COGAT unit. “The position will deal with the integration and implementation of the humanitarian effort in the Gaza Strip and the coordination with the international community, in a way that will allow the implementation of the humanitarian effort while upholding the security interests of the State of Israel,” the IDF said in a statement. The IDF places “great importance” on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the Israeli military added. On September 10, COGAT facilitated the transfer of 176 humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza as well as six “tankers of cooking gas” and 187,000 doses of the polio vaccination.

Related Analysis

“Israel Partners With UNICEF, on Polio Vaccinations, Clean Water,” FDD Flash Brief

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

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