The first round of polio vaccinations in Gaza, aimed at preventing an outbreak in the war-torn territory and beyond, has likely achieved its goal, the WHO said Thursday.
More than 552,000 children had already received a first dose as of Wednesday. The second should be administered to them in about four weeks, the UN agency said on the last day of the first phase.
"We are confident that we have probably reached the target," Dr. Richard Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization's representative in the occupied Palestinian territories, told a news briefing.
"We are satisfied" with this vaccination campaign, he said.
He was thus pleased that parents came in great numbers to have their children vaccinated. And, he said, "we are very grateful that the humanitarian pauses specific to certain areas were respected during the campaign" by the belligerents.
Following the discovery of the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years, a large-scale campaign began on September 1, with "humanitarian pauses" in the fighting targeting 640,000 children under the age of ten.
Dr Peeperkorn said the number of children who needed to be vaccinated had probably been overestimated, but he said the results of the campaign would now be studied to determine exactly how many children had been reached and to draw lessons for the second round of vaccination.
The goal is to prevent the spread of circulating poliovirus, derived from a vaccine strain of type 2 (cVDPV2). Two drops of the nVPO2 vaccine must be administered four weeks apart.
This first round of vaccination took place in three phases, with vaccines being administered first in the central region of Gaza, then in the south and, from September 10 to 12, in the north of the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, triggered by the deadly attack launched on October 7 by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas from this Palestinian territory, has caused a humanitarian and health disaster and the displacement of almost all of its 2.4 million inhabitants.
The October 7 attack killed 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which include hostages killed in captivity.
The Israeli military operation has left more than 41,000 dead in the Gaza Strip, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory. The UN human rights office notes that most of the dead are women and children.
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