Polio spreads in Gaza, warns Save the Children doctor

A Save the Children doctor in Gaza described the “deep trauma” of Palestinian children to the UN Security Council on Thursday and urged it to act now to stop the conflict, including by banning arms shipments, polio vaccines and humanitarian aid from entering the enclave.

Louisa Baxter, who works in the NGO’s emergency unit, described first-hand a bleak picture in the Strip, especially for the youngest children, who are the most threatened by polio, and denounced the “intentional obstruction” to humanitarian aid from Israel, as well as serious abuses.

“Outside this room, President, I am surrounded by overwhelming destruction. More than 1.9 million people are displaced and moving through streets filled with rubble, garbage and sewage; the bodies of at least 10,000 people, many of them children, remain lost beneath,” said the humanitarian.

The rare video call from Gaza to the Council focused on the ceasefire to implement the polio vaccination plan – which “should not come only when the evil they (the Palestinians) face poses a risk beyond the borders,” he said – but reflected the dire outlook of the younger generations.

“Our protection teams work with children released from the Israeli military detention system: these children report sexual violence, including rape. They report denial of food, beatings, dog attacks. They report seeing their parents stripped and beaten in front of them. “These children are struggling to come to terms with the profound trauma and mental and physical damage this has caused them,” Baxter said.

The doctor, whose speech was praised by some representatives afterwards, said that medical and humanitarian forces have been “pleading for almost a year for the parties to the conflict to respect the rules of war,” and she held the UN, and Council members in particular, responsible for upholding human rights.

He signed the call of Secretary General António Guterres, “two sustained cessations of hostilities, of no less than one week for each phase”and to start now, so that children can be vaccinated, adding that “compliance must be monitored with robust accountability from this Council.”

Baxter went further, saying that if the parties to the conflict fail to agree to a ceasefire, “it is up to the Council and its member states to demand and enforce one, including by taking steps to stop the delivery of arms to the Government of Israel and to Palestinian armed groups.”

“As we speak, polio is spreading in Gaza and it will not wait at the inspection gate at Kerem Shalom or the customs clearance at Ben Gurion Airport,” he added.