The United Nations children’s agency has said that a polio vaccination campaign to inoculate more than 640,000 children in Gaza is surpassing expectations at the end of the first phase of the programme.
Describing the campaign as a “rare bright spot” in almost 11 months of war, Unicef said that 189,000 children had been reached so far as more than 500 teams were deployed across central Gaza this week.
It said Israel and Hamas observed limited pauses in the fighting to facilitate the campaign, with UN agencies involved now hoping to expand the campaign to the harder-hit north and south of the territory for the next two phases.
The campaign was launched after Gaza had its first reported polio case in 25 years – a 10-month-old boy, now paralysed in the leg.
Health experts have warned of disease outbreaks in the territory, where the vast majority of people have been displaced, often multiple times, and where hunger is widespread.
Hundreds of thousands of people are crammed into squalid tent camps with few if any public services.
The vaccinations were being undertaken even as fighting continued in Gaza, with the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry saying 42 people had been killed over the past 24 hours and 40,861 people since the war began.
The head of the UN’s main agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, wrote on Wednesday: “Great progress! Every day in the Middle Areas of #Gaza, more children are getting vaccines against #Polio.”
“While these polio ‘pauses’ are giving people some respite, what is urgently needed is a permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages and the standard flow of humanitarian supplies including medical and hygiene supplies [into Gaza],” Lazzarini posted on X.
Despite the success of the polio campaign, diplomatic efforts to secure a permanent ceasefire, release hostages held in Gaza and return many Palestinians jailed by Israel, have faltered.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, insisted on Monday that Israeli troops would remain in the Philadelphi corridor on the southern edge of Gaza bordering Egypt, one of the main sticking points in reaching a deal.
However on Wednesday, Ron Dermer, the country’s strategic affairs minister, appeared to suggest that Israel may be prepared for a full withdrawal in a negotiated second phase of any deal.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Dermer said: “In phase one, Israel is going to stay on that line until we have a practical solution on the ground that can convince the people of Israel … that what happened on 7 October will not happen again. That Hamas will not rearm.
“And once you’ve concluded those negotiations, while you’re in a ceasefire for phase one, in order to get to phase two and a permanent ceasefire, that’s when you can discuss long-term security arrangements on the Philadelphi corridor.”
Hamas, which wants any agreement ending the war to include a withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza, says such a condition, among some others, would prevent an accord. Netanyahu says the war can only end when Hamas is eradicated.
The impasse is frustrating Israel’s international allies and the 15 members of the UN security council, where Slovenia holds the presidency for September.
Slovenia’s ambassador to the UN, Samuel Žbogar, said on Tuesday that patience was running out and the global body would probably consider taking action if a ceasefire could not be brokered soon.
The senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that the only way a deal could be reached was if Israel agreed to a US proposal on 2 July, endorsed by the security council, and accepted by the group. Israel and Hamas blame conditions added by each other for the failure to clinch a deal.
On Wednesday, the German government spokesperson Wolfgang Büchner said the killing of six Israeli hostages whose bodies were discovered at the weekend “has once again made clear that a ceasefire that opens the way to the freeing of all hostages held by Hamas must now have the highest priority. Other considerations should stand back.”
He called on all involved in the negotiations to show flexibility and readiness to compromise, and said an agreement could also help to de-escalate regional tensions.
However, a new poll released this week found Israelis deeply pessimistic that a deal could be brokered, amid nationwide fury at the government over Netanyahu’s handling of the hostage negotiations.
In its monthly poll, the Israel Democracy Institute found that 73% of respondents described themselves as pessimistic regarding the chances of a deal succeeding, while only 21% said they were optimistic.
Agencies contributed to this report
