Unicef director upbeat on progress after Gaza vaccinations begin

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Gazans are eager to ensure their children are vaccinated as a large-scale campaign against polio looks set to continue into a second day, a top UN official told The National, in hope of preventing a full-scale outbreak in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Israel agreed on Thursday to pause its bombardment of certain areas of Gaza for eight hours a day to allow for more than 2,700 health care workers to attempt to immunise around 640,000 Gazan children under the age of 10 after the strip reported its first case of polio for 25 years.

Regional director of Unicef's Middle East and North Africa office, Adele Khodr, said the first day of the vaccination campaign, which started in central Gaza and will move both north and south next week, went well.

“If we can have the same level of humanitarian pause tomorrow [Monday] and maintain that pause, and we are very optimistic that, yes, it can go on. All that we are asking for is five days,” she told The National in an exclusive interview. "This is not too much for children, right? So we hope that it will continue tomorrow and it will hold on."

The oral inoculations will be offered at 160 sites, including schools, hospitals and medical centres.

Glimpse of hope for Gazans

Gazans are enthusiastic to get their children vaccinated, after routine immunisations were disrupted by Israel's war with Hamas, which has been raging since October. More than 40,700 Gazans have been killed in the conflict, triggered by a Hamas attack on southern Israel in which the group killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 251.

The first polio case declared was a 10-month-old baby, who lost the use of one of his legs after contracting the disease. People with polio often experience no symptoms, but for those who are hit hardest it can paralyse. There is no cure.

"The communities are really worried about the health of their children... they cannot protect them from many other things, but at least they want to protect them from polio," Ms Khodr said.

She said the take-up of vaccines also showed hope for the future after living under Israeli bombardment for 11 months.

"It really is a symbol of how much the community is looking forward to a normal life for their children," Ms Khodr said.

Israel allowed around 1.3 million doses to be brought into the territory last month, which are now being held in refrigerated storage in a warehouse in Deir Al Balah. Another shipment of 400,000 doses is set to be delivered to Gaza soon.

The most important element to us is the pause in fighting, this has to be respected

Adele Khodr

The polio virus that sparked this latest outbreak is a mutated virus from an oral polio vaccine. The oral polio vaccine contains weakened live virus and in very rare cases that virus is shed by those who are vaccinated and can evolve into a new form capable of starting new epidemics.

Unicef, along with the World Health Organisation and the UN's Palestinian Refugee agency, UNRWA, have a five-day window of opportunity to complete the first round of vaccinations.

"For us if this is missed, then this is the biggest challenge, and it will be a failure of the campaign," she said.

But once on the ground, other problems may arise for medical teams, from continuing fighting to devastated roads and hospitals shut down by the war. Around 90 per cent of Gaza's population of 2.3 million people have been displaced within the besieged territory, with hundreds of thousands crammed into squalid tent camps.

But Mr Khodr said she is hopeful medical teams would be able to reach all the children they needed to.

"I am sure that they are ready and able to overcome any logistic difficulties, as long as the team feels they are safe and that they will not be bombed, and that they will be able to have access, but they will find a way of reaching the communities," she said.

"The most important element to us is the pause in fighting, this has to be respected."

Israel did not appear to have struck any areas under the humanitarian pause on Sunday, but did launch an attack on what it said was a "command and control centre" inside a former school in Gaza city, Israel's military said. Palestinian medics said they had so far recovered four dead from the strike and that many others were wounded. In Khan Younis, an Israeli air strike killed two Palestinians and wounded 10 others, according to medics.

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Key findings of Jenkins report

Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."

MATCH INFO

Champions League quarter-final, first leg

Ajax v Juventus, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)

Match on BeIN Sports

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets

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Iran has sent five planeloads of food to Qatar, which is suffering shortages amid a regional blockade.

A number of nations, including Iran's major rival Saudi Arabia, last week cut ties with Qatar, accusing it of funding terrorism, charges it denies.

The land border with Saudi Arabia, through which 40% of Qatar's food comes, has been closed.

Meanwhile, mediators Kuwait said that Qatar was ready to listen to the "qualms" of its neighbours.

Key facilities

Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
Premier League-standard football pitch
400m Olympic running track
NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
600-seat auditorium
Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
Specialist robotics and science laboratories
AR and VR-enabled learning centres
Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

The burning issue

The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.

Part three: an affection for classic cars lives on

Read part two: how climate change drove the race for an alternative

Read part one: how cars came to the UAE

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The Indoor Cricket World Cup

When: September 16-23

Where: Insportz, Dubai

Indoor cricket World Cup:
Insportz, Dubai, September 16-23

UAE fixtures:
Men
Saturday, September 16 – 1.45pm, v New Zealand
Sunday, September 17 – 10.30am, v Australia; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Monday, September 18 – 2pm, v England; 7.15pm, v India
Tuesday, September 19 – 12.15pm, v Singapore; 5.30pm, v Sri Lanka
Thursday, September 21 – 2pm v Malaysia
Friday, September 22 – 3.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 3pm, grand final

Women
Saturday, September 16 – 5.15pm, v Australia
Sunday, September 17 – 2pm, v South Africa; 7.15pm, v New Zealand
Monday, September 18 – 5.30pm, v England
Tuesday, September 19 – 10.30am, v New Zealand; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Thursday, September 21 – 12.15pm, v Australia
Friday, September 22 – 1.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 1pm, grand final