Gaza Strip Declared A'polio Epidemic' Area
Date
7/30/2024 11:06:44 PM
(MENAFN- Gulf Times) The health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza has declared the Palestinian territory a“polio epidemic area,” accusing Israel's military campaign of destroying health infrastructure, which it says led to the recurrence of the virus.
The CPV2 strain of the virus has been detected in sewage samples collected from the southern Khan Younis area and central governorates, the ministry said.
It did not say if any human cases had been detected, but said the presence of the virus“constitutes a health threat to the residents of the Gaza Strip and neighbouring countries and a setback to the global polio eradication programme”.
“The brutal Israeli aggression that deprived the people of usable water, the destruction of the sanitation infrastructure, the accumulation of tonnes of garbage and a lack of food security” had led to the recurrence of the virus, the ministry said.
The World Health Organisation said it was“looking at a very problematic situation”.
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) murdered nine Palestinian civilians yesterday, after carrying out an airstrike on Al-Bureij refugee camp, at the centre of the Gaza Strip.
Wafa news agency reported that the bodies were transferred to Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat refugee camp.
Gaza's civil defence agency said yesterday that an Israeli operation in and around the territory's second city of Khan Younis killed about 300 people since it began last week.
“Since the beginning of the Israeli ground invasion of the eastern part of Khan Younis province, the civil defence and medical teams have recovered approximately 300 bodies of martyrs, many of them decomposed,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) have murdered more than 39,400 Palestinian civilians and injured more than 90,996 others (mostly children), since the beginning of the genocide against Gaza in October 2023.
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