Health Authorities Face Challenges In Distributing Polio Vaccines Throughout Gaza

The New York Times (8/26, Yazbek) reports, “More than 1.2 million doses of the polio vaccine arrived in Gaza on Monday, in preparation for an expansive effort to inoculate more than 640,000 Palestinian children and curb a potential outbreak, the United Nations, Israel and health authorities in Gaza said.” The UN “said on Monday that its already hamstrung humanitarian operations had been brought to a temporary halt after the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of Deir al-Balah,” though a senior UN official “said at a briefing on Monday that there was no change to plans to begin polio vaccinations.” Meanwhile, UNRWA “said they hoped to deliver the first vaccines to Gazan children starting on Saturday.” Both UNICEF and WHO “have called on ‘all parties’ in the conflict to put in place a weeklong humanitarian pause in Gaza to allow both rounds of vaccines to be delivered, saying that ‘without the humanitarian pauses, the delivery of the campaign will not be possible.’”