Winter used to be a beloved season in Gaza. It was thought to bring “khayr” and “baraka” – goodness and blessings. Children and adults alike looked forward to the arrival of the cold season for relief from the summer heat.
When the rain would finally come, children would rush into the streets, joyfully singing “Shatti ya doniya shatti, wa arawi kul al-aradi, li-yazraa al-falah khokh wa roman wa tufah” – “Rain, world, rain and water all the lands, so the peasant can grow peaches, pomegranates and apples.”
For water-stressed Gaza, the rains were indeed a blessing. Farmers would welcome them and start preparing for the new crop season. The markets would be full of locally grown vegetables like spinach, lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, and fruit like oranges, kiwis, persimmons and strawberries.
For city dwellers, the rainy days would be a time to relax at home, snuggling under warm blankets or gathering around a fire to make tea or sip “sahleb” – a sweet drink made of milk, starch, coconut shreds and nuts.
On the occasional night when electricity would be restored, families would cosy up in front of the TV to watch a movie or a soap opera.
On cold and dry days, many would venture out to the seashore, enjoying a stroll or meeting friends. The aroma of sweet grilled corn and chestnuts would fill the air. Many would also stop by the famous dessert shop “Abu Al Saoud” to have a warm kunafeh – either the nut-stuffed Arabian variety or the cheese-filled one called nabulsia.
These Gaza winters now seem from the distant past. Abu Al Saoud’s shop is no more. There are no cosy gatherings and sweet chatter, no sahleb, no TV. There are no children outside singing “Shatti ya doniya shatti” when it rains.
This year, winter did not bring khayer and baraka. It brought more suffering and utter despair.
The rains have been a curse. People are praying for dry weather, fearing what floodwaters could do to the camps for the displaced.
The sound of thunder has now become like the sound of bombs – it terrifies. Many Palestinians have nowhere to shelter from a storm. Aid groups say that at least one million people have no basic protection from winter weather.
Makeshift shelters are made from textiles, tarpaulins, blankets, cardboard and even old rice sacks. They can hardly withstand the wind and rain. At night, families are forced to stay awake, desperately holding their tents in place so they don’t fly away, while water seeps in from underneath, soaking their mattresses, blankets and other belongings.
Often, the shelters are so flimsy that the rain destroys them, throwing into despair families that had already lost everything. The price of tents and materials to build makeshift ones has skyrocketed, leaving those whose shelters are blown or washed away exposed to the elements.
Some have become so desperate that they return to their bombed-out homes to take refuge. Even if the building is so badly damaged that it can collapse at any moment, people remain in it, having no other choice.
Staying warm is also nearly impossible. Wood has become unaffordable for many; 1kg now costs $9. Those who cannot afford to buy it have to set out to search for it themselves – an exhausting, gruelling task. Even if there is enough wood for a fire, that is not enough to keep a family warm throughout the freezing night.
What makes the winter cold even more unbearable is the hunger. Since October, food prices in Gaza have skyrocketed. A bag of flour costs as much as $200. Meat and fish have completely disappeared from the markets; vegetables and fruit are scarce and at exorbitant prices.
Bakeries have closed because they have no supplies to bake. UNRWA and the World Food Programme, which normally provide for the most vulnerable, cannot cope with demand. Soup kitchens distribute meals of chickpeas, lentils and rice, but each family gets just one plate, barely enough for one person.
At night, in every displacement camp, the cries of hungry children can be heard as they beg their parents to give them food.
Memories of the warmth and joy that once filled homes during the winter in Gaza have faded. Despair and misery reign supreme in the cold. The suffering of the Palestinian people seems to have no end. So many survive on the flickering hope that the war and the genocide will end, that food will become available again and people will have proper shelter. That khayr and baraka will return to Gaza one day.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
Israel has ramped up attacks on Iran-linked targets in Syria since it began its war on Gaza last year.
At least 15 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on residential buildings in Damascus, Syrian state media reported.
“The Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan [Heights], targeting residential buildings in the Mazzeh neighbourhood of Damascus and the Qudssaya area in the Damascus countryside, killing 15 people and injuring 16 others,” the ministry said on Thursday, adding that the death toll could rise.
The Israeli military said it carried out air strikes targeting several buildings and command centres belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad armed group.
The strikes are a “significant blow” to the Gaza-based group and its operatives, the Israeli army statement says on Telegram.
An official with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Group told The Associated Press news agency the strike in Mazzeh targeted one of the group’s offices, and that several members of the group were killed.
“[The Palestinian Islamic Jihad] is a Gaza-based group, a group that participated along with Hamas in the October 7 attacks in Israel last year,” Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford said, reporting from Beirut.
“In the last few weeks or so, there has been an escalation in Israel targeting infrastructure and according to Israel, Hezbollah-related targets in Syria. Certainly, this is the first time in a long while, that Palestinian Islamic Jihad is targeted,” he added.
A woman reacts as she checks the damage following a reported Israeli strike in the Mazzeh district of Damascus outskirts [Louai Beshara/AFP]
Israel has been carrying out strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria for years but has ramped up such raids since last year’s October 7 attack led by the Palestinian group Hamas. Israel also launched its continuing assault on Gaza, which has killed at least 43,736 people and wounded 103,370 others, according to Palestinian authorities.
Commanders in Lebanon’s Hezbollah armed group and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard based in Syria have been known to reside in Mazzeh, according to residents who fled after recent strikes that killed some key figures from the groups.
Mazzeh’s high-rise blocks have been used by the authorities in the past to house leaders of Palestinian factions including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
“It is also interesting to point out that in recent weeks Israel has been trying to cut weapons lines for Hezbollah. This strike [Thursday’s strike] doesn’t seem to be necessarily related to that … but this attack again highlights the length and reach of Israel,” Stratford added.
Leaders gather in Doha for yet another round of ceasefire talks, with hopes are running high.
Gaza ceasefire talks have restarted in the Qatari capital, Doha, after being stalled for months.
Israel’s Mossad foreign intelligence agency chief and the head of the CIA have met with the Qatari prime minister in hopes of moving negotiations forward.
The killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar should, according to Israel and the US, pave the way for a peace agreement, ending the war on Gaza and allowing for the release of the remaining captives in Gaza.
The latest round of talks comes on the heels of a series of targeted assassinations by Israel of leaders both in Gaza and Lebanon.
But could the talks really lead to a breakthrough?
Presenter:
Hashem Ahelbarra
Guests
Salman Shaikh – former UN official who advised the UN’s peace envoys to Gaza, Jerusalem and Lebanon.
Hafsa Halawa – political consultant specialising in the Middle East and North Africa, and a non-resident Fellow at the Middle East Institute.
Alon Pinkas – former adviser to Israeli Prime Ministers Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak.
The Palestinian Bedouins of the West Bank do not have time to wait for Israeli Jews to turn against their government’s policy towards them.
Instead, they rely on their own resilience – or, in Arabic, “sumud”. The term expresses the Palestinian sense of being rooted in their own land, and their historical rights.
It is a word which has become a guiding principle for Palestinians, leading many Bedouins to stay on their land despite the ongoing harassment.
Many attempt to return to their villages even after their belongings have been stolen and their homes reduced to ruins, as Abu Bashar and a few men from Wadi as-Seeq did repeatedly. They have tried, time and time again, to return to the remains of their homes, empty animal pens and stolen solar panels, but with no success.
Ekhlas Kaabneh, 25, is from the Bedouin East Taybeh community in al-Mu’arrajat. Ekhlas’s family illustrates Palestinian resilience: Although a settlement outpost is just a few metres away, the family is determined to stay and continue their Bedouin life, alone, despite the rest of their community being displaced.
Ekhlas waters the plants in front of her house, made of tin sheets, and smiles at her flowers. “These flowers have bloomed despite the extreme heat this year, she said. They always remind me of steadfastness; this is how we should be.”
Ekhlas’s community was partially displaced two years ago and completely displaced after October 7. The family lives alone on the slope of a mountainous area bordered to the north and west by olive trees. To the east are vast agricultural lands extending to Jericho, which were inhabited and farmed by Bedouin families until 2017, when they were expelled by settlers, their agricultural lands seized and settlements built in their place.
“The settlers stole our identity. [They live] as Bedouins, working in herding sheep and cattle, even though they settle the land without a single animal with them… They stole our livestock, which is among the best in the world, we inherited from our ancestors,” Ekhlas says, the smile gone from her face.
Several Bedouins and Israeli activists said that settlers in new outposts since 2015 deliberately dress in Bedouin-like clothing, build tents and herd livestock. Passersby often cannot recognise them unless they engage in conversation, as they do not speak Arabic.
Ekhlas and her family have continued to face attacks. Last year, on March 29, during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, she was beaten as she slept, waking up to pepper spray in her eyes. She could hear only the screams of her two sisters and little brother as their house was damaged by the settlers.
“After that horrible night, we became afraid… I sleep every day with a stick next to me in case of another attack. I always have nightmares about that night that make me wake up in fear,” Ekhlas said.
Aside from the settlers, Ekhlas faces the threat of Israel itself. Her family has been issued a demolition order, on the pretext that their home was built on land in Area C without permission – which is notoriously hard to obtain for Palestinians.
Area C constitutes nearly 60 percent of the West Bank and is the main focus of the illegal settlement enterprise. Area B is under joint Palestinian-Israeli control while Area A is under the governance of the Palestinian Authority (PA). In Area C, where Israel retains complete control including security and zoning since its occupation in 1967, there are at least 325,500 settlers in 125 settlements and more than 100 outposts. An estimated 180,000-300,000 Palestinians live in Area C, including 27,500 Bedouins, according to the United Nations.
The late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat issued a decree in 2002, establishing the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC) to confront the illegal settlements.
“Its primary task is to support the Palestinians in Area C through rebuilding their homes and even having employees stationed among them for a period to help resist and document the settlers’ violations,” said Younis Arar, the head of the commission’s international relations unit and the director in Bethlehem.
Arar himself has been arrested by Israeli authorities multiple times while defending Palestinian homes and suffered an injury to his foot after a settler attacked him with a car.
“Since October 7, 26 Palestinian communities and villages to the east of the West Bank and Jerusalem, and the south of Hebron, have been entirely displaced and seized, but we are making every effort to stabilise the remaining residents in their place,” said Arar.
“We can’t do more, the world is unable to send a sip of water to Gaza under a genocide, and we in the West Bank are also alone resisting the occupation. We have no choice but our sumud.”
It’s a choice Ekhlas knows all too well.
“If we take a step back, they will take steps forward with their settlement,” she said. “We have no other land.”
This story was produced with the Internews Earth Journalism Network.
Deir el-Balah, Gaza – A year of war, displacement and horror has not made the people of Gaza forget the homes they had to leave behind to save their families from relentless Israeli bombing.
Al Jazeera spoke to three women who are now living in a refugee camp near Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah. They fled with their families, but held on to the one object that unifies all Palestinians deprived of their homes and lands: the keys to their houses.
No longer the large iron keys that their forebears took with them when they were ethnically cleansed in the Nakba of 1948, these small, modern keys are just as important to a dispossessed people as ever.
Abeer
Abeer al-Salibi, 37, lives in the crowded Deir el-Balah displacement camp and still carries the key to her house, though it now lies in ruins.
She, her husband and their seven children live in a tent, a far cry from the home they built over 17 years of toil.
She dreams of home, a modest house with a small garden in al-Karama, north of Gaza City.
“We only lived in it for three years before it was [bombed] last October,” Abeer recalled. “All that’s left of it is this key.”
Since they were forced from their home, the family has been displaced five times: Nuseirat to Rafah, then Khan Younis, and finally now to Deir el-Balah.
“Home is life. I miss my life. I miss the simple routine of waking my children for school, welcoming them back,” Abeer said with a soft smile.
She dreams of returning, even if it means living on the ruins of what was once their home.
“I’ll set up a tent on the rubble if I have to. We will rebuild. The important thing is to return.”
Wafaa
Wafaa Sharaf, 20, had only been married for six months when the war erupted, derailing the dreams she had with her 20-year-old husband, Islam.
Pregnant with her first child, she was forced in November to flee her home in as-Saftawi, north of Gaza City.
Islam had lovingly prepared a small apartment on the top floor of his father’s house for the couple to live in.
“It was no more than 60sq metres (646sq feet), but to me, it was heaven,” Wafaa said.
“We had been planning the baby’s room, and my mother had prepared clothes for the newborn. We left everything behind when we fled.
“I didn’t want to leave the house. My soul was still tied to it,” Wafaa said. “But when shells started falling … we had no choice.”
She gave birth to her daughter Leen in the overcrowded camp in January, during one of Gaza’s coldest winters.
The couple do not know what happened to their home, relying on second or third-hand accounts of people who had seen it.
Regardless, Wafaa has just one wish: “To return to my home. I don’t want anything else.”
Hiba
Hiba al-Hindawi, a 29-year-old mother of three, says that if she could do it all over again, she would have never left her home.
“I left out of fear for my children and myself. The bombing was relentless.”
She wishes she had taken more from the house, precious items like her wedding photos and pictures of her children when they were young.
“It’s all gone now,” she said quietly.
Looking back, she recognises the everyday luxuries of having a refrigerator, washing machine, and beds.
“I just wish I could wash my hands from a tap or use a bathroom like normal. It feels like we’ve been thrown back to the Stone Age.”
More than anything, she just wants the war to end.
“I want this Nakba to stop,” she said desperately.
In the future, she said, she will tell her grandchildren about the horrors of war that she and her children are living through.
“If we survive, I’ll tell them what we saw,” she said.
It started as a last-minute effort in February: Organisers in Michigan hoped to use the state’s Democratic primary to send a message to President Joe Biden to end his support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
Six months later, Biden is no longer the Democratic presidential candidate. But the US’s “ironclad” support for the war continues. And so has the “uncommitted” movement, the protest effort born in Michigan.
Initially, the aim was to encourage primary voters across the country to cast their “uncommitted” ballots in protest of the war. But now that the primary season is over, the “uncommitted movement” has set its sights on a new platform: the Democratic National Convention.
Next week, 30 delegates from eight states, representing some 700,000 voters who cast “uncommitted” ballots, will be heading to the convention in Chicago. Though they have been denied an official platform to speak at the proceedings, they hope their presence will still send a strong message.
“We’re the first delegation ever to be representing Palestinian human rights. And I think that that’s really important. We’re a small but mighty group,” said Asma Mohammed, who organised for the “uncommitted” movement in advance of Minnesota’s primary.
Mohammed acknowledged the “uncommitted” delegates will be a minority at the convention. Still, she emphasised the voter base they represent could be decisive in November’s general election.
“There’s 30 of us, and there’s over 4,000 delegates nationally. So we’re less than 1 percent of the delegates,” she told Al Jazeera.
“But inside the convention hall, we will be representing the Palestinians that were massacred, representing the almost million voters nationwide who said that they want a ceasefire right now and that they want an arms embargo.”
Activist Natalia Latif tapes a ‘Vote Uncommitted’ sign on the speaker’s podium during an election night gathering in Dearborn, Michigan [File: Rebecca Cook/Reuters]
The group had requested for Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care physician who has worked in Gaza, to speak at the convention. Their appeal was denied, Mohammed said.
Still, the delegates, under the banner of the Uncommitted National Movement, will hold a programme of events on the sidelines of the convention. There, they will meet with various caucuses and seek to rally other delegates pledged to Kamala Harris, the new Democratic nominee for president.
‘Fighting for human rights’
The Uncommitted National Movement has already used its position to protest against the continuing bloodshed in Gaza, where more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed.
Earlier this month, Harris was formally designated the Democratic nominee through a virtual roll call — an online vote in which all delegates could take part.
Instead of voting for Harris, the “uncommitted” delegates nominated victims from Gaza. Mohammed was among the delegates who participated in the protest.
“I submitted my vote for Reem Badwan, a three-year-old who was murdered in an Israeli air strike in Gaza,” Mohammed said. “And I made clear my vote [in the general election] was contingent on a ceasefire and an arms embargo.”
Ahmad Awad, an “uncommitted” delegate from New Jersey, said the effort was a “symbolic way to highlight the many victims of the war”. The 29-year-old lawyer nominated Abdul Rahman Manhal, a 14-year-old killed in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp in November.
“The districts that I’m representing as an ‘uncommitted’ delegate encompasses Paterson and Clifton, New Jersey, which are home to a large Palestinian American community. It’s basically little Ramallah,” Awad said, drawing an analogy to the West Bank city.
Awad explained that his participation in the “uncommitted” movement stems from a family history of fighting and surviving human rights abuses.
“Fighting for human rights is something that’s really ingrained in my DNA,” he told Al Jazeera.
“On my father’s side, both of my grandparents were born in Palestine prior to 1948. My mother’s side is Polish. My grandfather is a survivor of Nazi slave labour camps.”
‘Resolute is the best word’
In Harris’s abrupt entrance into the presidential race, activists have seen a potential opening for a course change in US policy towards Israel.
Harris became the Democratic nominee after Biden withdrew from the race on July 21, amid concerns about his age and capacity to lead.
Whereas Biden has advanced a policy of “bear-hug diplomacy” towards Israel, some observers believe Harris has signalled her intention to take a tougher stance.
Shortly after entering the presidential race, Harris pledged to denounce the suffering of Palestinian civilians. “I will not be silent,” she said, shortly after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a brief exchange with two “uncommitted” leaders — Layla Elabed and Abbas Alawieh — at a campaign stop in Detroit this month, she also said she would speak with the group.
But her campaign has not set a date for the meeting, and a Harris campaign adviser doused hopes that she would support a full arms embargo on Israel.
Michael Berg, a 49-year-old uncommitted delegate from Missouri, said there had been some positive signs from Harris, although he had tempered his expectations.
“It’s hard to know where things are going,” said Berg, who named two-year-old Gaza victim Jihad Khaled Abu Amer as his vote during the virtual roll call. “I’m hoping that Vice President Harris is not as dug in on positions as President Biden seems to be.”
Still, Berg explained he and the other “uncommitted” delegates are steadfast in their mission to advocate for a ceasefire at the Democratic National Convention.
“So we are, I guess, resolute is the best word. We are going to the convention because we have a very clear mandate and mission from the people, and we’re going to do what we can.”
‘Standing with my fellow Kentuckians’
In the lead-up to the convention, the “uncommitted” movement has added delegates to its group.
Violet Olds, for instance, applied to represent the “uncommitted” segment of voters in Kentucky but was not initially involved in the movement.
Olds, a digital project manager, said that after she was selected by the party to represent uncommitted voters, she was approached by her local Democratic Socialists of America chapter, which connected her to the national protest movement.
“I actually reached out and found ways to communicate with other Kentucky voters to find out why they voted uncommitted and how I can represent their voices at the convention,” the 41-year-old told Al Jazeera.
“And it all comes down to basically Gaza and Palestine. So I’m standing with my fellow Kentuckians and with Palestinians.”
During the roll call, Olds named Mohammad Bhar, a 24-year-old Palestinian man with Down syndrome who died after being mauled by an Israeli military dog in his home in Shujayea in Gaza.
“I am autistic, and so that means that I represent a whole different class of people than I think the Democratic Party is usually used to representing, and my son is autistic, as well,” Olds said. “So when I heard Mohammad’s story, it really, really, really hit home.”
Asma Mohammed, an activist with Uncommitted Minnesota, addresses media in Minneapolis, Minnesota [Stephen Maturen/AFP]
Others, like Inga Gibson, a delegate from Hawaii, have long been part of the Palestinian solidarity movement. Nearly 30 percent of voters in Hawaii’s Democratic primary cast their ballot for “uncommitted”, the largest proportion of any state. Seven of the island state’s 22 delegates are “uncommitted”.
Gibson attributed the turnout to Hawaii’s “own history of settler colonialism”.
“A lot of native Hawaiians within the Palestinian freedom movement have drawn on that parallel,” she explained.
Gibson, a 52-year-old environmental policy consultant, said that the relatively small size of the “uncommitted” delegation does not reflect wider sentiment against US support for Israel.
Polls have repeatedly shown widespread disapproval of Israel’s actions among Democrats. Experts say the support for Israel could disadvantage Democrats in several key battleground states, including Michigan and Pennsylvania.
“I do not feel that our movement, by any means, is in the minority, even if our delegates are, per se, in the minority compared to 4,000 others,” said Gibson. She named Gaza victim Ruba Yasser Nawas, a 22-year-old software engineer, during the roll call vote.
“Everything that we are asking for is completely mainstream.”
‘Cannot just make this week a celebration’
June Rose, the sole “uncommitted” delegate from Rhode Island, also said it was incorrect to assume the delegation members come from the fringes of the Democratic Party.
“We are Democratic professionals. I’m the chief of staff of the Providence City Council. I’ve made my career helping to elect Democrats and defeat Republicans who pose incredible risk to the future of our country,” the 29-year-old told Al Jazeera.
“But my relationship with the party will never supersede my relationship with my values, and in this case, my values and my party are in direct conflict.”
Rose named Eileen Abu Odeh, a toddler killed with her family in an Israeli air raid in Gaza, during the roll call. They explained the delegation’s presence at the Democratic National Convention can serve as a gut check for the party, as it prepares to chart a course forward on foreign policy.
“Our party cannot just make this week a celebration, and I think that that’s the tone that many in our party want to take,” Rose said. “But that celebration would be on the graves of innocent children who’ve been slaughtered.”
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for humanitarian pauses in the war in Gaza in order to conduct a polio vaccine campaign after the virus was detected in the besieged territory.
“It is impossible to conduct a polio vaccination campaign with war raging all over,” he told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York on Friday.
Guterres appealed for assurances of humanitarian pauses to be provided immediately from the warring parties as he warned that preventing and containing the spread of polio in Gaza would take a massive coordinated and urgent effort.
“Let’s be clear: The ultimate vaccine for polio is peace and an immediate humanitarian ceasefire,” Guterres said. “But in any case, a polio pause is a must.”
The UN chief added that the organisation is poised to launch a polio vaccine campaign in Gaza for children under the age of 10, but he said the “challenges are grave”.
At least 95 percent vaccination coverage will be needed during each of the two rounds of the campaign to prevent polio’s spread and reduce its emergence, given the devastation in Gaza, Guterres said.
He noted that a successful campaign would require the facilitation of transport for vaccines and refrigeration equipment at every step, the entry of polio experts into Gaza, as well as reliable internet and phone services.
According to the UN agency for children (UNICEF), the vaccination will be administered in two rounds and is expected to be launched at the end of August and September this year across the Gaza Strip.
Hamas has said it supports the UN request for a humanitarian pause to vaccinate children against polio.
“Hamas also demands the delivery of medicine and food to more than two million Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip,” Izzat al-Rishq, a member of the group’s political bureau, said in a statement.
In July, Gaza’s Health Ministry declared a polio epidemic in Gaza and blamed Israel’s military offensive in the enclave as the reason behind the spread of the deadly virus. The Israeli military said in July it had already begun vaccinating its soldiers against the disease.
Polio has been detected in wastewater in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis governorates, Dr Hamid Jafari, a World Health Organization (WHO) polio specialist, said earlier this month.
Without proper health services, the population of Gaza is particularly vulnerable to outbreaks of disease, public health officials and aid groups have said.
Israel has restricted humanitarian groups’ access to Gaza, and Israeli forces have bombed aid convoys, killing dozens of aid workers.
Moreover, the Israeli offensive has put most of Gaza’s hospitals out of commission and the repeated displacement of Palestinians, who continue to face evacuation orders by the Israeli military, makes it difficult to locate and reach unvaccinated children.
Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, a paediatric intensive care physician, told Al Jazeera last month that the presence of the virus in sewage was a “ticking time bomb”.
“Normally, if you have a case of polio, you’re going to isolate them, you’re going to make sure that they use a bathroom that nobody else uses, make sure that they’re not in close proximity to other people, [but] that’s impossible,” she said.
“You have everybody clustering in refugee camps at the moment without vaccines for at least the past nine months, including children who would otherwise have been vaccinated for polio and adults who, in the setting of an outbreak, should receive a booster, including healthcare workers,” she added.
Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis.
Children under the age of five, are most at risk from the viral disease, and especially infants under two, since normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by 10 months of conflict.
“We need a ceasefire, even a temporary ceasefire to successfully undertake these campaigns,” Hanan Balkhy, regional WHO director, told reporters earlier this month.
“Otherwise, we risk the virus spreading further, including across borders,” he added.
