Polio vaccine campaign begins in Gaza a day before an expected pause in fighting

A health worker administers a polio vaccine to a child at a hospital in Khan Younis, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

JERUSALEM — A campaign to inoculate children in Gaza against polio and prevent the spread of the virus began on Saturday, the Health Ministry said, as Palestinians in the Hamas-governed enclave and in the occupied West Bank reeled from Israel's military offensives.

A small number of children in Gaza began receiving doses a day before the large-scale vaccine rollout and planned pause in fighting agreed to by Israel and the UN World Health Organization. The WHO confirmed the larger campaign would begin Sunday.

“There must be a cease-fire so that the teams can reach everyone targeted by this campaign,” said Dr. Yousef Abu Al-Rish, Gaza's deputy health minister, describing scenes of sewage running through crowded tent camps.

Associated Press journalists saw about 10 children receiving doses at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis.

“I was terrified and waiting for the vaccination to arrive and for everyone to receive it,” said Amal Shaheen, whose daughter received a dose.

Israel is expected to pause some operations in Gaza on Sunday to allow health workers to administer vaccines with the aim of reaching some 640,000 Palestinian children. Officials said the pause would last at least nine hours and is unrelated to ongoing cease-fire negotiations.

The three-day vaccination campaign comes after the first polio case in 25 years in Gaza was discovered this month. Doctors concluded a 10-month-old had been partially paralyzed by a mutated strain of the virus after not being vaccinated due to fighting.

Healthcare workers in Gaza have warned of the potential for a polio outbreak for months. The territory's humanitarian crisis has deepened during the war that broke out after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and abducting around 250. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were militants.

Hours earlier, the ministry said hospitals received 89 dead on Saturday, including 26 who died in an overnight Israeli bombardment, and 205 wounded — one of the highest daily tallies in months.

The ministry later announced a “repeated attack” on al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City with “many martyrs." There were no immediate details, and the Israeli military didn't comment.

Meanwhile, parts of the West Bank remained on edge as Israel's military continued its large-scale military campaign, the deadliest since the Israel-Hamas war began, and two car bombings by Palestinian militants near Israeli settlements left three soldiers injured.

The car bombs exploded in Gush Etzion, a bloc of Israeli settlements. Israel's military killed both attackers after the explosions in a compound in Karmei Tzur and at a gas station, Israel's military said.

Hamas did not claim the men as its fighters but called the attack a “heroic operation." The militant group said earlier this month after a bombing attack in Tel Aviv it would continue such attacks.

The bombings took place as Israel continued its large-scale raid — including destruction of infrastructure, airstrikes and gunbattles — into urban refugee camps in the cities of Jenin and Tulkarem, in the northern West Bank. Israel's incursion started Tuesday, causing alarm among the international community that the war might widen beyond Gaza.

Israel's military on Saturday said 23 militants had been killed since the incursion began, including 14 in the Jenin area.

Some people fled Jenin. Holding a baby, Oroba al-Shalabi said Israeli gunfire had pelted her windows.

“We began screaming that we had small children, but they (the Israeli soldiers) didn’t respond at first. The more we screamed, the more they shot at the house, shattering the TV and the windows around us,” she said.

The family cowered in their kitchen until soldiers entered, she said, separating women and children from the men and searching everyone’s phones before letting her flee.

Israel has described the West Bank operation as a strategy to prevent attacks on Israeli civilians, which have increased during the war in Gaza including near settlements that the international community largely considers illegal. The Palestinian Health Ministry noted a surge in Palestinian deaths by Israeli forces, with at least 663 killed in the West Bank since the war began.

In central Gaza, Israeli airstrikes hit a multi-story building housing displaced people in and around Nuseirat, a built-up refugee camp, in Khan Younis and in Gaza City, officials at area hospitals said.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent months trying to mediate a cease-fire that would see the remaining hostages released. But the talks have repeatedly bogged down as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed “total victory” over Hamas and the militant group has demanded a lasting cease-fire and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territory.

Magdy reported from Cairo and Metz from Rabat, Morocco.