GENEVA: The third phase of a giant polio vaccination drive targeting children in Gaza began on Tuesday in a particularly war-ravaged zone, but the WHO said a support convoy had to abort its mission.
After the first confirmed polio case in 25 years, a massive vaccination effort began last week targeting over 640,000 children under 10, aided by localised "humanitarian pauses" in fighting.
After covering central and southern Gaza, the campaign moved into its final phase in the north from Tuesday until Thursday, said World Health Organization spokesman Tarik Jasarevic.
Maher Shamiya, the deputy health minister in the Gaza Strip, told AFP that 230 teams were working to provide the vaccines and that there had already been "significant turnout of families eager to vaccinate their children".
Disease has spread with Gaza lying in ruins and the majority of its 2.4 million residents forced to flee their homes due to Israel's military assault -- often taking refuge in cramped and unsanitary conditions.
A fresh campaign to provide a needed second dose is due to begin in about four weeks in Gaza, besieged for over 11 months.
Ahead of the roll-out of the third phase, "vaccines, cold chain equipment and finger markers were delivered to north Gaza yesterday," Jasarevic said.
However, "a WHO mission carrying fuel for hospitals and vehicles for the polio campaign as well as campaign monitoring experts was impeded", he said.
It had taken three hours for that mission to get a green light from the Israelis to move, "followed by five hours at the holding point, after which the mission had to be aborted", he explained.
WHO also voiced concern that some areas in the north facing Israeli evacuation orders are part of the areas where humanitarian pauses had been agreed to allow the vaccination to go ahead.
"We appeal to all parties to continue ensuring these humanitarian pause zones are respected during the campaign," Jasarevic said.
He said a separate WHO mission to reach Gaza's largest hospital, Al-Shifa, in the north was also "impeded" on Monday.
That marked the fourth time in as many days that WHO was unable to reach the hospital.
"We call for safe and sustained access to the north and for a functional de-confliction system, which still remains a challenge 11 months into the war," Jasarevic said.
Israel's retaliatory offensive in the Gaza Strip has so far killed at least 41,020 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. — AFP
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