Gaza family says Israel killed children before receiving second polio vaccine

A Palestinian mother says Israeli forces have killed her 10-year-old son, before he could take his second polio shot.

The United Nations began the second round of its polio campaign in central areas of the Gaza Strip on Monday.

Asmaa al-Wasifi, the mother who was mourning her 10-year-old son, said, “The time for second vaccine was here, but the occupation did not let them live to continue their lives and their childhood.”

Her son, Yamen was killed along with four of his cousins, when an Israeli airstrike hit their family home in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza on September 24.

They had received their first shot three weeks earlier.

Yamen’s grandmother Zakeya, who lost at least 10 of her family members in Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, said they “don’t want any drinks or any aid. We want them to give us safety and security – for the war to end.”

Zakeya’s son also lost his wife, whose body was unrecognizable after the strike that also killed their four children.

WHO says Gaza children need peace more than vaccines

The UN health agency says “peace” is the best solution to save Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip.

He said his kids had just had fresh haircuts to get ready for school. “They were happy like butterflies… Ten minutes later, the targeting happened. I found them all in pieces.”

UNICEF, the United Nations agency for children, has warned that Isabel’s savage campaign in Gaza is taking a catastrophic toll on children.

More than 16,000 children and 11,000 women have been killed since October 2023, according to the latest estimate by the Palestinian Ministry of Health. And thousands more have been injured.

More women and children have lost their lives in the regime’s genocidal war on Gaza in one year than the equivalent period of any other conflict over the past two decades, according to an Oxfam analysis.

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