ShareGAZA: Holding his teddy bear, Gazan mother Asmaa Al-Wasifi mourned her 10-year-old son, who was killed in a Zionist entity strike before he could take his second polio shot. The United Nations began the second round of its polio campaign in central areas of the enclave on Monday, though many Gazans said the effort was futile given the ongoing Zionist entity campaign to crush Hamas.
“The time for second vaccine was here, but the (Zionist entity) occupation did not let them live to continue their lives and their childhood,” said Asmaa, crying as she went through her son’s clothes and school books. Yamen, along with four of his cousins - the oldest of whom was 10 - were killed when Zionist entity hit their family home on Sept 24 in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.
The children had received their first polio vaccines three weeks earlier in a UN campaign that prompted rare daily pauses of fighting between Zionist entity and Hamas militants in pre-specified areas. The campaign began after a baby was partially paralyzed by the type-2 polio virus in August, in the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
Yamen’s grandmother Zakeya, who lost at least 10 of her family members, called for the war that has ravaged the tiny enclave of 2.3 million people for more than a year to end. “We don’t want any drinks or any aid. We want them to give us safety and security - for the war to end,” she said.
Efforts to secure a ceasefire so far have faltered, with Zionist entity and Hamas unable to agree on key demands. Her son Osama, 35, said his wife’s body was unrecognizable after the strike that also killed their four children. The children had just had fresh haircuts to get ready for school, he added. “They were happy like butterflies... Ten minutes later, the targeting happened. I found them all in pieces,” he said.
More than 150,000 children in Gaza received the required second dose of oral polio vaccine in the first two days of the campaign’s second round, the WHO chief said Wednesday. Despite continuing Zionist entity military operations in some areas of the Palestinian territory, the second round of a polio vaccination campaign, aiming to reach more than 590,000 children under the age of 10, began on Monday.
“The total number of children who received a second dose of polio vaccine in central Gaza after two days of vaccination is 156,943,” the World Health Organization’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X. “The vaccination continues today. At the same time, 128,121 children received vitamin A supplements. “We call for the humanitarian pauses to continue to be respected. We call for a ceasefire and peace,” he said.
As during the initial round of vaccination last month, the second will be divided into three phases, helped by localized “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting: first in central Gaza, then in the south and finally in the hardest-to-reach north of the territory. — Agencies
