UN calls for ceasefire in Gaza to vaccinate against polio after first case detected in 25 years

Gaza woke up this Saturday to the confirmation that polio is circulating in the enclavenew evacuation orders and the news of the threatened cessation of operations of one of the few hospitals still in operationwhile the Ceasefire negotiations continue with the hopes of the international community and the exchange of recriminations between Israel and Hamas.

Late Friday night, the Palestinian Ministry of Health, based in Ramallah (West Bank), recorded the first case of polio in Gaza, which has been free of the disease for 25 years.

“It affects a 10-month-old child who has not been vaccinated against polio,” Health announced at the time, confirming fears of the World Health Organization (WHO), which had been warning of a possible outbreak for a month when it announced the aftermath of the discovery of the virus in environmental samples taken in the Strip.

The health sector already has the equipment to carry out the vaccination campaign with the help of entities such as WHO, UNICEF or the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), aimed at children under 10 years of age and which is expected to be produced in the future. at the end of August: “We are waiting for the arrival of the vaccines in Gaza.” Of course, the UN warns that a ceasefire is necessary to carry out vaccination.

The Palestinian authorities were targeted the Israeli offensive andn the Strip -which continues to accumulate to this day 40,074 dead– like the cause of the outbreakmaking access and distribution of cleaning and hygiene products difficult, and condemning the population to overcrowding due to waste and polluted water.

The humanitarian crisis resulting from the lack of access to basic resources also extends to access to fuel, which complicates the work of hospitals across the enclave, as only 16 of the 36 in the Strip are partially functioning.

In the north of the enclave there are only three and one of them, the Al Awda of Jabalia, fears that it will have to stop its surgical activities tomorrow due to a lack of access to energy, acting director Mohammed Salha warned this afternoon.

Evacuation orders

In addition, the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of Beit Hanun, Al Manshiya and Sheikh Zauyed, in the far north of Gaza and close to the hospital, on Saturday. “We believe that in a few days the army will enter these areas, there will be many wounded and we will not be able to help them,” fears the director of Al Awda.

Along with these areas, Israel ordered the evacuation of areas in central Gaza, such as the Maghazi refugee camp and the eastern part of Deir al Balah.

In addition, an Israeli bombardment last Saturday in the neighboring town of Zawayda, which Israel has ordered Gaza City residents to evacuate, killed seventeen members of the same family, who had to be completely removed from civil registry.

In addition, at least ten Syrian civilians have been killed and another five people wounded in an attack by Israeli fighters on a cement factory in a town in southern Lebanon, as reported by the Emergency Operations Center of the Lebanese Ministry of Health on Saturday.

The Israeli army, for its part, announced that it had killed a commander of the Radwan forces, the elite unit of the Lebanese Shiite militia of Hezbollah. The deceased has been identified by the Israeli army as Hussein Ibrahim Kassab, killed by a drone strike while riding a motorcycle in the Qadmus area, near the coastal city of Tyre.

Blinken arrives in Israel for negotiations

For his part, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will arrive in Israel tonight to continue his country’s “intensive diplomatic efforts” as a mediator in negotiations aimed at the Gaza ceasefire.

The Doha summit, which Hamas did not attend because it demands compliance with the original US draft, will be followed next week by meetings in Cairo to discuss Joe Biden’s latest proposal, with which he plans to bring positions between Israel and the Islamists closer together.