Gaza polio vaccination campaign surpasses target, Unicef says

Israel and Hamas observed limited pauses in the fighting to facilitate the campaign, the UN children’s agency said.

The UN children’s agency has said a polio vaccination campaign in Gaza reached 189,000 children, surpassing its target and providing a “rare bright spot” in nearly 11 months of war.

Unicef said more than 500 teams deployed across central Gaza this week, administering the vaccine to children under 10.

It said Israel and Hamas observed limited pauses in the fighting to facilitate the campaign.

UN agencies now hope to expand the campaign to the harder-hit north and south of the territory. They hope to vaccinate a total of 640,000 children.

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.