EU’s Borrell urges 3-day ceasefire to enable polio vaccination in Gaza
The foreign policy chief of the European Union Josep Borrell calls for an immediate three-day ceasefire in Gaza to allow children to be vaccinated against poliovirus, the quick spread of which threatens hundreds of thousands of children in the besieged Palestinian territory.
Borrell warned about a quick spread of the highly infectious virus that had identified in sewage samples collected by UNICEF from Khan Younis and Deir al Balah.
He said in a message on X that the disease, which can cause deformities and paralysis, “threatens all children in Gaza, already weakened by displacement, deprivation & malnourishment.”
Borrell urged “an immediate 3-day humanitarian ceasefire to enable vaccination by WHO and UCICEF – independent of wider negotiations.”
“Our humanity demands it,” the EU's top diplomat said.
The quick spread of polio threatens all children in Gaza, already weakened by displacement, deprivation & malnourishment.
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) August 27, 2024
I urge an immediate 3-day humanitarian ceasefire to enable vaccination by @WHO & @UNICEF – independent of wider negotiations.
Our humanity demands it.
After six sewage samples taken in Gaza in late June tested positive for the virus, the World Health Organization warned that it was “just a matter of time” before the disease reached thousands of Palestinian children.
At the time, cases of acute flaccid paralysis had been flagged in the area where the samples were taken. Just weeks later, the first polio case in 25 years was confirmed in an unvaccinated 10-month-old baby in Gaza.
Now more than 1.2 million oral polio vaccines have arrived in the Gaza Strip, with millions more expected in coming days.
WHO is joined in the vaccination effort by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and other partners. The aim is to vaccinate virtually 640,000 children under the age of 10 with two doses each.
The organizations have emphasized that a ceasefire — what they are calling a “polio pause” — is crucial.
They have warned that without a ceasefire, children in Gaza will continue to become paralyzed, and the deadly disease will spread to the broader region and beyond.
The Gaza Health Ministry has urged “international organizations to work and pressure the occupying authorities to stop the continuous aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip so that medical teams can vaccinate children and prevent the spread of the polio virus.”
Aid groups have called for seven days to safely administer the vaccines.
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas said in a statement on August 16 that it supports a ceasefire for a polio vaccination.
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