DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Born during Israel’s devastating war with Hamas, 10-month-old Abdel-Rahman Abu El-Jedian began crawling early. Then one day, he froze: His left leg appeared paralyzed.
The little boy is the first confirmed case of polio inside Gaza in 25 years, according to the World Health Organization.
Abdel-Rahman was a very energetic baby, the boy’s mother, Nevine Abu El-Jedian, said, fighting back tears. “Suddenly, everything turned upside down. Suddenly, he stopped crawling, moving, standing and sitting.”
For months, health workers in Gaza have been warning of a possible polio outbreak, as the humanitarian crisis triggered by Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip worsens. Abdel-Rahman’s diagnosis confirms the health workers’ worst fears.
Before the war, children in Gaza were largely vaccinated against polio, the WHO says.
But Abdel-Rahman was not vaccinated because he was born just before October 7, when Hamas militants attacked Israel and the latter launched a retaliatory offensive against Gaza, forcing his family to flee almost immediately. Hospitals were attacked and regular vaccinations for newborns were all but halted.
According to the WHO, for every case of paralysis from polio, hundreds of others are likely to have been infected but have no symptoms. Most people who contract the disease have no symptoms, and those who do usually recover within about a week. But there is no cure, and when polio causes paralysis, it is usually permanent. If the paralysis affects the breathing muscles, the disease can be fatal.
The Abu El-Jedian family, like many others, now lives in a crowded tent camp, next to piles of garbage and filthy sewage that spills into the streets, which aid workers describe as hotbeds for diseases like polio, transmitted through faeces. The United Nations has unveiled plans to begin a vaccination campaign to stop the spread and protect other families from the ordeal the Abu El-Jedian family now faces.
The family of 10 left their home in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, moving from shelter to shelter until finally settling in a tent in the central town of Deir al-Balah.
“My son has not been vaccinated due to the continuous displacement,” his mother said. “We are staying here, in a tent, in such sanitary conditions that there are no medicines, no means, no food supplements.”
The mother-of-eight said she was “stunned” to learn her boy had contracted polio.
The WHO says at least two other paralyzed children are reported in the comic, and samples of their stools have been sent to a laboratory in Jordan.
To vaccinate most of Gaza’s children under 10, UNICEF spokesman Ammar Ammar said a ceasefire was needed. seek a break from the fighting, which has forced thousands of Palestinian families to flee in recent days successive Israeli evacuation ordersMany children live in areas of Gaza that are difficult to access due to ongoing Israeli military operations.
“Without the polio truce or ceasefire, this would be impossible,” Ammar said. “This is due to the constant evacuation orders and the constant movement of children and their families. Additionally, it can be extremely dangerous for teams to reach the children.”
The UN aims to vaccinate at least 95% of the more than 640,000 children by Saturday. 1.2 million doses of the vaccine have already arrived in Gaza, with another 400,000 doses expected to arrive in the coming weeks, according to UNICEF. COGAT, Israel’s military body in charge of civil affairs, announced Monday that the vaccination would be completed. said he was allowing UN trucks transporting more than 25,000 vials of vaccine through the Kerem Shalom border crossing on Sunday.
“If this measure is not implemented, it could have disastrous consequences, not only for the children of Gaza, but also for neighboring countries and beyond the region’s borders,” Ammar said.
Back in her family’s tent in Deir Al-Balah, Nevine Abu El-Jedian looked at her youngest son, lying motionless in a plastic car seat converted into a crib, as her seven other children gathered around her.
“I hope he goes back to being like his brothers and sisters, sitting and moving,” she said.
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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the family’s last name to Abu El-Jedian.
