The first phase of the polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip to prevent an outbreak has been a “tremendous success”, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said today, noting that more than 560,000 children have receive the first dose of the vaccine.

“This was a huge success in the midst of the daily tragic reality that the Gaza Strip is experiencing. Think what could have been achieved with a ceasefire!” Dr Tedros said in a post on X, as the first phase of the campaign ended on Thursday.

A second round of vaccination – a single oral dose – is scheduled to begin in about four weeks.

On 23 August WHO confirmed that at least one infant became paralyzed after contracting polio. This was the first case in the Gaza Strip in 25 years.

Israel and Hamas agreed to eight-hour daily ceasefires in pre-designated areas to allow the vaccination program to take place.

The WHO launched the large-scale campaign on September 1 to limit the risk of an epidemic.

“Pauses of hostilities for humanitarian reasons” in specially designed areas made it possible to carry out the operation in three stages, in the center of the Palestinian enclave, in the south and finally in the north, where the first phase was completed there yesterday.

“We admire all the health teams who carried out this complex operation,” the WHO director-general stressed, as the operation took place in an area devastated by more than 11 months of war and while Israeli bombardment and ground military operations continue. .

Dr. Tedros also expressed his gratitude to the families who came en masse to vaccinate their children.