gaza
© AFPInoculations against rubella, polio, measles and mumps trucked in via Rafah amid concerns of health emergency within beleaguered enclave and worries outbreaks could reach Israel. An elderly woman looks on as she sits with children at a makeshift camp in an area of the European Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on December 31, 2023.
Thousands of doses of vaccines against childhood diseases including polio and measles have begun entering the Gaza Strip to help deal with a growing health emergency in the besieged enclave, the Palestinian Authority health ministry said Monday.

Israel's ground offensive has effectively stopped normal health services in Gaza, including vaccinations against highly contagious childhood diseases that had been brought under control by mass immunization programs.

The Ramallah-based ministry, which is separate from Hamas-controlled health authorities in Gaza, said supplies were estimated to be sufficient to cover vaccinations for between 8 and 14 months.

They entered Gaza through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt with the aid of Egyptian government cold storage facilities.

Israel announced on Friday that it would facilitate the entry of the vaccines to help prevent the spread of disease, amid international alarm over what the World Health Organization referred to as "soaring rates of infectious diseases."

Israeli health officials have raised concerns that outbreaks could spread to soldiers fighting in the enclave or find their way into Israel.


Comment: Considering how the covid vaccines will have likely compromised the immunity of a number IDF troops - with Israel's uptake rate at over 90% - this does seem to be a significant possibility: Israeli troops in Gaza infected by deadly fungi, 1 dead & 10 severely affected


The vaccines against diseases including rubella, polio, measles and mumps come from supplies purchased by the Palestinian health ministry and also donated by UNICEF, the United Nations children's fund, the ministry said.

Yasser Bouzia, head of international relations in the health ministry in Ramallah, said there were estimated to be some 60,000 newborn babies in Gaza, who would normally receive vaccination but who have been largely cut off from medical services.

He said administering the vaccines would be difficult because most of Gaza's population has evacuated from their homes, with hundreds of thousands living in tents or other temporary accommodation.

War broke out on October 7 as Gaza's Hamas rulers carried out a massive assault on communities in southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking some 240 hostage.

Israel has vowed to crush the terror group, and its military campaign has brought devastation to vast swaths of Gaza, with many of the enclave's over 2 million residents living in squalid conditions and little access to food, clean water or medical care, according to international observers.

Israel blames Hamas for the humanitarian disaster, accusing the terror group of hiding among the civilian population. It also says the UN has failed to effectively distribute food aid to the half-million Palestinians the world body said are in imminent danger of starvation.