Israeli military attacks on healthcare infrastructure and water supplies as well as ongoing aid obstruction are contributing to a potentially catastrophic polio outbreak in Gaza, Human Rights Watch has warned.
“If the Israeli government continues to block urgent aid and destroy water and waste management infrastructure, it will facilitate the spread of a disease that has been nearly eradicated globally,” said Julia Bleckner, senior health and human rights researcher at HRW on Monday.
“Israel’s partners should press the government to lift the blockade immediately and ensure unfettered humanitarian access in Gaza to enable the timely distribution of vaccines to contain the unfolding polio outbreak,” Bleckner added.
Although entirely preventable but able to spread fast, particularly among children under five, polio can cause disabilities, including paralysis, and death among unvaccinated children, the organization said.
Baby Paralyzed
The Palestinian Ministry of Health declared Gaza a polio epidemic zone at the end of July, and on August 16 confirmed the first case of polio in a 10-month-old child.
On the same date, the World Health Organization (WHO) said “three children presenting with suspected acute flaccid paralysis (AFP), a common symptom of polio, have since been reported in the Gaza Strip.”
On August 23, the WHO confirmed that the baby had developed paralysis in one leg, after contracting the Type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
HRW said the spread of the polio virus poses a significant risk for the hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza who may have missed routine vaccinations since October 7.
In 2022, polio vaccination rates in Gaza were “optimal,” at around 99 per cent, the organization said, adding that by early 2024, those rates had dropped to below 90 per cent.
ICJ Orders
According to HRW, humanitarian actors are raising the alarm that it will be impossible to reach the more than 640,000 children who need polio vaccines if Israel continues its ongoing bombardments on civilians and civilian infrastructure and obstruction of humanitarian access.
The organization said Israel is contravening the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) legally binding orders by obstructing the entry of lifesaving aid and services into Gaza.
Since January, the court has thrice ordered provisional measures requiring Israel to ensure the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance as part of South Africa’s case alleging that Israel is violating the Genocide Convention of 1948.
‘Press for End to Siege’
HRW said the Israeli government should immediately end its blockade of Gaza and ensure full and unfettered humanitarian access, including access to vaccines and medicines.
Countries “should use leverage such as targeted sanctions and embargoes” to press the Israeli government to comply with the Court’s binding orders.
“Children in Gaza are already suffering from starvation and rampant infectious disease as a result of Israel’s blockade and attacks on civilian infrastructure and are now facing an unprecedented polio outbreak without vaccines to protect them,” Bleckner said.
“Israel’s allies should unequivocally press for an end to the siege of Gaza,” she emphasized.
Over 40,000 Killed
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 40,405 Palestinians have been killed, and 93,468 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the enclave.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.