Our teams are doing as much as they can to support children and families in Gaza, delivering aid amid some of the most challenging circumstances we’ve ever seen.
Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a 10-month-old baby had contracted polio, the first case in Gaza in 25 years. U.N. officials say the disease left the baby partially paralyzed, and thousands more children are at imminent risk of contracting polio.
Over the past three days at Save the Children's Primary Health Care Center (PHCC) in Deir al-Balah, staff worked around the clock to protect as many children as possible from the devastating effects of polio. In addition to administering critical vaccines during scheduled pauses in military operations, we have coordinated community outreach to educate families about preventing polio and other infectious diseases.
A Save the Children health worker administers the polio vaccine to a child in Gaza on Sept. 2, 2024.
But this is not nearly enough, John.
Only an immediate, definitive ceasefire will protect the children of Gaza, Israel and throughout the region – not an intermittent pause over three days. The measures taken to protect children in Gaza are as welcome as they are urgent. However, polio is simply the latest in a long line of risks that children in Gaza face, including other diseases, starvation, mental harm, family separation and loss of loved ones and the deadly threat of explosive weapons and other violence.
A pause may protect some of Gaza’s children from polio, but without a ceasefire, it simply postpones rather than prevents their pain, suffering and, in the worst cases, their death. It also does nothing to achieve the release of the remaining hostages, which would end the anguish of countless families.
Eleven months of brutal conflict have completely devastated Gaza’s health, water and sanitation – leading to polio outbreaks. There must be efforts to scale up access to safe, clean and treated water. We can help – Save the Children is uniquely equipped to protect children in crisis – but we must have a ceasefire to allow for lifesaving humanitarian access.
We’ll continue to update you on our efforts to protect children in Gaza and around the world.
We’re grateful for all that our dedicated supporters have done and continue to do to provide lifesaving aid to children. Our work simply wouldn’t be possible without the generosity of caring supporters like you.
