Israel vaccinates troops fighting in Gaza against polio
The Israeli military says it has begun vaccinating its soldiers in Gaza against polio after health agencies said the virus was detected in the besieged and bombarded densely populated territory.
Army authorities have started “a broad vaccination operation for all ground troops, both regular and reserves,” it said in a statement, without providing a figure.
The statement said the order was given after the army carried out sample tests in Gaza where most of the population is displaced and health and sanitary infrastructure has been decimated by the war.
UN agencies said this week that the Global Polio Laboratory Network found type-2 poliovirus in six environmental samples collected on June 23. Israel’s health ministry said it had made similar findings. No human cases have been reported.
The Israeli army, whose attacks on Gaza have killed nearly 39,000 people and wounded about 90,000, said it was also working with other organisations to take vaccines for the population in the territoty.
The highly contagious virus is caught by drinking contaminated water or through oral contact. It can cause paralysis and in extreme cases death.
Waste water now runs in between tents in many camps for the displaced and fresh water is increasingly scarce. With fuel limited, aid agencies rarely send out trucks with water and pumps at wells cannot be used. Many people walk long distances to get safe water from points set up by volunteers.
Water ‘not suitable for drinking or cooking’
Health officials in recent days have warned of a looming disaster for displaced Palestinians across Gaza living in tent camps, where sewage flows freely, contaminating water.
Northern Gaza is suffering particularly badly from food and water shortages after major Israeli offensives.
Ahmed Al-Shanbari, a father living in a camp in Jabalia said the water his family has “is not suitable for drinking or cooking”. “My children suffer from kidney disease, jaundice, itching and coughing. There is no treatment in northern Gaza,” he told AFP.
Shanbari said the family spends four hours each day searching for a source of water.
‘Entire Gaza Strip under fire and we are being hunted like deer in a forest’
As we previously reported, Israeli strikes on Gaza over the last 24-hour reporting period killed at least 64 people and wounded more than 100 others, the local health ministry said.
At least 22 were killed by strikes on Sunday, according to the Government Media Office.
Israeli attacks on areas of central Gaza in the past week have been focused on the Nuseirat refugee camp, where dozens of people have been killed.
“We hear the sounds of explosions in Nuseirat and we see the smoke rising from here in Deir el-Balah, the last refuge you can say and we are being terrorised by the feeling tanks may roll here,” Tamer Aburakan, a resident of Gaza City, now displaced in the central area of Deir el-Balah, told Reuters.
“Where should we go next? The entire Gaza Strip is under fire and we are being hunted like deer in a forest. When is enough? When the war will ever end?” he asked via a chat app.
