Today's Edition
Khan Younis (AFP)
Children in Khan Younis tilted their heads back, mouths open, as they received oral drops during the second phase of a polio vaccination campaign in Gaza, which began on Thursday.
"I have been vaccinated," five children said proudly one by one, their inked fingers proof of their inoculation against polio.
Gaza's health ministry reported the first case of polio in 25 years last month, amid the devastating war in the Palestinian territory.
At tent camps for the displaced, schools-turned-shelters and health centres, parents brought babies, infants and teenagers for vaccines provided by UN agencies.
"I live in a tent next to a sewage pond with significant disease and epidemic issues, and mosquitoes and worms have affected us", said Amani Ashur, 37, who brought his one-year-old son Abdul Rahman to be vaccinated.
Gazans said they feared the spread of diseases due to the overcrowded and unsanitary conditions in the camps and shelters.
"I was worried about my child, so I brought him to be vaccinated", said Safaa al-Balbisi, 34, about her two-year-old son Yahya.
Raafat Tuman, 46, brought his two-year-old son Adam to Khan Younis's Nasser hospital after learning of the campaign on social media.
"I decided to vaccinate my child to protect him from (polio) and other illnesses," he said.
Hundreds of families gathered at a school-turned-shelter, waiting for the vaccines to arrive.
'An hour without a bomb'
Thursday marked the fifth day of polio vaccinations in Gaza and the first in the south of the coastal territory.
World Health Organization spokeswoman Louise Wateridge said the aim was to vaccinate 200,000 children against the disease during this phase.
So far, the vaccination drive was going as planned, said Majdi Dahir, Gaza health ministry technical director for the polio campaign.
"The campaign in the Central governorate proved to be highly successful, exceeding the target, which is very positive," he said, hoping for similar success in the south.
Overall, the campaign aims to fully vaccinate more than 640,000 children in Gaza, with a third phase set to be launched in the north.
Wateridge warned, however, that "in the southern area it's going to be more difficult to reach a lot of the population", as the designated humanitarian zones -- where Israel has agreed not to strike during the campaign -- do not cover all children.
A relative lull in fighting in these areas has offered a brief respite to families after weeks of intense bombing and fighting.
There were still "a lot of strikes this morning and through the night", Wateridge said, but "one thing I noticed yesterday was, you know, going an hour without hearing a bomb, you notice that."
