'This Is Crazy': Aid Groups Prepare To Fight Polio In Gaza

On Thursday, the United Nations announced a plan to try to address one of the most terrifying consequences of Israel’s U.S.-backed offensive war in the Gaza Strip: the return of the feared poliovirus to the Palestinian territory.

Health experts call the U.N. campaign a hugely important bid to protect hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza and to shield neighboring communities — but they are unsure whether it will work, as fighting between Israel and Gaza-based militant group Hamas continues.

Polio had been wiped out in Gaza as it has in much of the world, with its last case reported 25 years ago. Yet Israel’s military operation, which followed a Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023, destroyed the area’s water and medical facilities and forced nearly 2 million people out of their homes. This created conditions in which the virus could flourish.

Earlier this month, local health officials confirmed that a baby had contracted the disease. The child, 11-month-old Abdul Rahman, has become severely weak, his mother recently told CNN; polio cannot be cured and can lead to paralysis or death for children.

Starting Sunday, medical personnel working with the U.N., partner organizations and Gaza’s Health Ministry will attempt to provide polio vaccines to an estimated 640,000 children in the strip who are under the age of 10, said Dr. Rik Peeperkorn of the United Nations’ World Health Organization in a Thursday press conference.

U.N. negotiations with Israeli authorities over the vaccination campaign failed to achieve the goal that aid groups sought: a “polio pause” in combat across Gaza, an idea that Hamas agreed to but was a tougher sell to Israel’s hawkish government. Instead, three-day, area-specific pauses to allow for