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STORY: UN / UNICEF GAZA POLIO VACCINATION
TRT: 04:22
SOURCE: UN NEWS / UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNICEF FOOTAGE ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 28 OCTOBER 2024, AL MAWASI, RAFAH, GAZA STRIP, STATE OF PALESTINE / FILE
UNICEF – 15 OCTOBER 2024, AL-ZAWAIDA, GAZA STRIP, STATE OF PALESTINE
1. Close up of polio vaccine
28 OCTOBER 2024, AL MAWASI, RAFAH, GAZA STRIP, STATE OF PALESTINE
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Rosalia Bollen, Communication Specialist, UNICEF:
“There are hundreds of people have been killed over the past weeks. Many more injured. There are hospitals that have been raided under siege. So, the conditions simply are not there to, to roll out this second round in North Gaza.”
UNICEF – 15 OCTOBER 2024, AL-ZAWAIDA, GAZA STRIP, STATE OF PALESTINE
3. Med shot, families arriving with their children in the Al-Zawaida area and receiving their oral polio vaccine during the second round of the campaign, following the first round that ended on September 12, 2024.
28 OCTOBER 2024, AL MAWASI, RAFAH, GAZA STRIP, STATE OF PALESTINE
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Rosalia Bollen, Communication Specialist, UNICEF:
“Our deadline is mid-November. Past that line, the immunity if children who have received that first dose will rapidly decline. So what is going to happen is really two things. The first one is that the children in the north of Gaza, we estimate there are almost 120,000 children, 119,000. So those 119,000 plus children in northern Gaza will not be protected. And polio is a dangerous disease. Polio paralyzes. It can actually kill. So, these children are at great risk.”
UNICEF – 15 OCTOBER 2024, AL-ZAWAIDA, GAZA STRIP, STATE OF PALESTINE
5. Various shots, families arriving with their children in the Al-Zawaida area and receiving their oral polio vaccine during the second round of the campaign, following the first round that ended on September 12, 2024.
28 OCTOBER 2024, AL MAWASI, RAFAH, GAZA STRIP, STATE OF PALESTINE
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Rosalia Bollen, Communication Specialist, UNICEF:
“This is a risk not just to the 120,000 children who remain in northern Gaza, children aged ten, and below that is, but also to children in the larger region. And that's why we are so incredibly worried and pressing for this second round to happen by beginning of November.”
UNICEF – 15 OCTOBER 2024, AL-ZAWAIDA, GAZA STRIP, STATE OF PALESTINE
7. Med shot, families arriving with their children in the Al-Zawaida area and receiving their oral polio vaccine during the second round of the campaign, following the first round that ended on September 12, 2024.
28 OCTOBER 2024, AL MAWASI, RAFAH, GAZA STRIP, STATE OF PALESTINE
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Rosalia Bollen, Communication Specialist, UNICEF:
“People's immunity, people's resilience physically and mentally is just depleted. It's they're worn out as people are scarred and traumatized. And yet violence is escalating in the North. So, this is deeply worrying.”
UNICEF – 15 OCTOBER 2024, AL-ZAWAIDA, GAZA STRIP, STATE OF PALESTINE
9. Wide shot, families arriving with their children in the Al-Zawaida area and receiving their oral polio vaccine during the second round of the campaign, following the first round that ended on September 12, 2024.
28 OCTOBER 2024, AL MAWASI, RAFAH, GAZA STRIP, STATE OF PALESTINE
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Rosalia Bollen, Communication Specialist, UNICEF:
“It should come as no surprise that we have these very, very dire projections. So, across the board, it's not looking good for children and their families in Gaza because of everything I described. And also, a reminder, these kids have already lost one year of school, and it doesn't look like they'll be able to go back this year either. So, we're looking at a risk of a lost generation, really.”
UNICEF – 15 OCTOBER 2024, AL-ZAWAIDA, GAZA STRIP, STATE OF PALESTINE
11. Wide shot, families arriving with their children in the Al-Zawaida area and receiving their oral polio vaccine during the second round of the campaign, following the first round that ended on September 12, 2024.
28 OCTOBER 2024, AL MAWASI, RAFAH, GAZA STRIP, STATE OF PALESTINE
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Rosalia Bollen, Communication Specialist, UNICEF:
“So, one of the vaccination points I visited in Deir Al Balah, there was a girl with a broken leg who arrived. Her dad had carried her on his back. This was a ten-year-old girl not a small child. And she had these metal pins in her leg. As I spoke to the girl and her father, especially the father who made it very clear that he had seen too many threats to his daughter in Gaza. Polio is yet another threat. So, you know, whatever it takes, he was going to make sure that his daughter was going to be able to get that second dose. So that is indicative of how strongly parents and families feel about the safety and, and the health of their children.”
UNICEF – 15 OCTOBER 2024, DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA STRIP, STATE OF PALESTINE
13. Various shots, families in the Deir Al-Balah area receiving their oral polio vaccine during the second round of the polio vaccination campaign.
28 OCTOBER 2024, AL MAWASI, RAFAH, GAZA STRIP, STATE OF PALESTINE
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Rosalia Bollen, Communication Specialist, UNICEF:
“At that same vaccination point, there were other parents who thanked the vaccination team for protecting the children, but many of them came to me and they also said, ‘what is the UN going to do about this war? When is this war going to end? You know, we appreciate you vaccinate our children, but if we walk out the street and then we're hit by a shell or a bomb, what's the point of protecting our children?’”
UNICEF – 15 OCTOBER 2024, DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA STRIP, STATE OF PALESTINE
15. Various shots, families in the Deir Al-Balah area receiving their oral polio vaccine during the second round of the polio vaccination campaign.
UNICEF has announced that ongoing violence in northern Gaza has disrupted a critical phase of the polio vaccination campaign, putting nearly 120,000 children at severe risk. The escalation has led to the postponement of the second vaccine dose, leaving children vulnerable to polio, a highly infectious disease that can cause paralysis or death.
“There are hundreds of people have been killed over the past weeks. Many more injured. There are hospitals that have been raided under siege. So, the conditions simply are not there, to roll out this second round in North Gaza,” said Rosalia Bollen, UNICEF’s Communication Specialist in Gaza.
UNICEF’s initial polio vaccination rounds were largely successful in central and southern Gaza. However, recent displacements and a lack of humanitarian access in the north have hindered vaccine distribution. The deadline to complete the second dose is mid-November, after which immunity in children who received the first dose will sharply decline.
Bollen expressed deep concern about the wider regional impact, adding, “This is a risk not just to the 120,000 children who remain in northern Gaza, children aged ten, and below that is, but also to children in the larger region. And that’s why we are so incredibly worried and pressing for this second round to happen by beginning of November.”
The violence has taken a heavy toll on Gaza’s infrastructure, with families displaced and essential medical logistics severely disrupted. “People’s immunity, people’s resilience physically and mentally is just depleted. It’s they're worn out as people are scarred and traumatized. And yet violence is escalating in the North. So, this is deeply worrying,” Bollen said.
Bollen also emphasized the long-term ramifications of the conflict, stating, “It should come as no surprise that we have these very, very dire projections. So, across the board, it's not looking good for children and their families in Gaza because of everything I described. And also, a reminder, these kids have already lost one year of school, and it doesn't look like they'll be able to go back this year either. So, we're looking at a risk of a lost generation, really.”
Bollen recalled a father who carried his ten-year-old daughter with a broken leg to a vaccination point. “He had seen too many threats to his daughter in Gaza. Polio is yet another threat. So, you know, whatever it takes, he was going to make sure that his daughter was going to be able to get that second dose. So that is indicative of how strongly parents and families feel about the safety and, and the health of their children.”
Parents are also questioning the broader impacts of violence, Bollen said, “At that same vaccination point, there were other parents who thanked the vaccination team for protecting the children, but many of them came to me and they also said, ‘what is the UN going to do about this war? When is this war going to end? You know, we appreciate you vaccinate our children, but if we walk out the street and then we’re hit by a shell or a bomb, what’s the point of protecting our children?’”
