Gaza [Palestine], August 17: Hamas supports the UN's call today for a seven-day truce to vaccinate thousands of children against polio, the movement said on Friday.
Hamas also demands the delivery of medicine and food to more than two million Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip, Izzat al-Rishq, a member of the Hamas Movement's Political Bureau, said in a statement.
Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday that two rounds of a polio vaccination campaign are expected to be launched at the end of August and in September across Gaza to prevent the spread of the circulating virus variant.
"Humanitarian pauses are vital for the lifesaving vaccines to reach all children in need. We request all parties to implement humanitarian pauses for seven days during each round of the campaign," Tedros said on social media platform X.
"Ultimately, the best vaccine for all children in Gaza is peace," he added.
Six circulating variant poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) strains were detected in environmental samples from Deir al Balah and Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip in late June, with no cases of polio yet recorded.
Gaza had a vaccination coverage of 99 percent prior to the conflict between Hamas and Israel, a rate that has now dropped to 86 percent due to the decimation of the health system, lack of security, destruction of infrastructure, mass displacement, and shortage of medical supplies, UN statistics showed.
Source: Xinhua
