UN reports that Israeli evacuation orders disrupt polio vaccination efforts in Gaza.

A spate of Israeli eviction orders, pushing Palestinians into smaller and ever more isolated pockets, is crippling the UN’s ability to function in Gaza, it has said, days before a critical effort to contain a polio outbreak. Aid workers warn that without a humanitarian pause, a vaccination drive due to begin this weekend could fall short of reaching enough children to stem the virus – which was detected there this month for the first time in 25 years.

 A baby has already been partly paralyzed by the disease and health experts have warned it could spread rapidly given the appalling sanitation and overcrowding in camps for Gaza’s exhausted displaced population. One thing is for sure, it is just about impossible to lead a polio vaccination campaign at scale in an active combat zone, said Jonathan Crickx, regional spokesperson for Unicef.

Discussions between aid agencies and the IDF are underway concerning the propose d vaccination campaign. The IDF permitted transportation through the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza on Sunday of more than 25,000 vials of vaccine and refrigeration equipment but their commanders have yet so far to agree to a cessation in the bombing to enable the immunization campaign to take place safely and successfully.

The Israelis had greatly increased the clearance of neighborhoods, including camps of the displaced, saying it was in pursuit of “terror operatives”.The Israeli military issued a record 16 evacuation orders in August – forcing 12% of the territory’s population to move within days, according to the UN. The overwhelming majority of those affected have already had to flee multiple times since the start of the war nearly 11 months ago.

 The impact of the orders on aid workers like drivers meant the UN had to halt movements around the strip on Monday, although staff already in position with supplies were able to continue their work. “These evacuation orders … make our work nearly impossible,” UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said. He added that the residual work still underway was “half a drop in a barrel” compared with the needs of the 2.2 million Palestinians besieged in Gaza.

Juliette Touma, the head spokesperson for Unrwa – the biggest humanitarian agency operating in Gaza – said: “Our ability to undertake and implement humanitarian work is shrinking by the hour. Every time there is an order for an evacuation, it affects us because our local staff are always on the move. They are the backbone of the humanitarian operation.”The latest evacuation orders have targeted the town of Deir al-Balah, a central Gaza town that became a humanitarian hub after cities to the south, such as Rafah and Khan Younis, were targeted by IDF offensives. The latest edict on Sunday affected four UN warehouses in the town and 15 premises used by aid agencies.

These orders increasingly concentrate huge numbers of displaced Palestinians within a 41 sq km area of the Gazan coast at al-Mawasi, near Khan Younis. According to a report by the UN humanitarian agency, OCHA on Monday: “The severe overcrowding with a density of 30,000 to 34,000 per square kilometer, has exacerbated the dire shortage of essential resources such as water, sanitation and hygiene supplies, health services, protection, and shelter.

The cold warehouse, where the vials of polio vaccine are stored, is in Deir al-Balah, in a district not directly affected by the evacuation orders. But the orders make it difficult for aid workers to move around and find the scattered children of Gaza – including more than 50,000 babies estimated to have been born since the start of the war who are very unlikely to have had any vaccinations at all. If the immunization drive is to be effective in containing the polio outbreak, the first of two rounds of vaccine must reach 90% of those babies and the rest of the 640,000 children in Gaza under the age of 10. 

This will need to be achieved quickly if the aim of breaking transmission of the virus before it can spread or mutate is to be achieved. “It’s absolutely critical that this vaccination campaign is done in a few days-between five to seven days is what we are asking for,” Crickx said.