The Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip has likened Israel’s prevention of polio vaccines in the besieged and bombarded territory to “a time bomb that threatens to spread the epidemic”.

In a statement, it said 602,000 children in Gaza were at risk of “permanent paralysis and chronic disabilities” unless they could receive the desperately needed vaccines.
“Preventing the entry of vaccines means the collapse of the efforts made over the past seven months, which means serious and catastrophic repercussions will be added to the targeted and exhausted health system, in addition to doubling the social and economic repercussions,” it warned.