Gaza’s Fragile Humanitarian Pauses & Polio Vaccination Efforts Overshadowed by Continued Conflict”

By BeDard, Abigail 

Vaccine Delivery at Gaza

Despite a recent agreement between the Israeli government and Hamas to create humanitarian pause zones in Gaza to allow for the administration of polio vaccines to children, violence continues to rage both in and outside of the enclave. The UN’s vaccination campaign began back on September 1st, in response to the detection of variant poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) in Gaza. While many around the world have expressed their hope that these pauses will provide Gazans with respite, any relief provided by these humanitarian pauses is limited, both in area and duration. As the BBC reported last week when the official plan was announced, “It will be rolled out in three separate stages, across the central, southern and northern parts of the strip. During each stage, fighting will pause for three consecutive days between 06:00 and 15:00 local time”. A stark reminder of these limitations arrived today in the form of reports that Israeli strikes killed at least 27 Palestinians in Gaza on Friday, September 6th.

To the East, in the city of Nablus, West Bank, an American woman, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, was shot in the head and killed by Israeli forces during an anti-settlement protest. The woman, a dual American-Turkish citizen, was a member of the International Solidarity Movement, an organization that defines itself as, “a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the long-entrenched and systematic oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian population, using non-violent, direct-action methods and principles”. In response to Eygi’s death, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement via X (formerly Twitter), stating, “We have learned with deep regret that our citizen Aysenur Ezgi Eygi has been killed by the Israeli occupation forces in Nablus, West Bank…We condemn this murder committed by the Netanyahu government”.  

The White House also issued a brief statement concerning Aysenur’s death. Sean Savett, a spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council stated, “We are deeply disturbed by the tragic death of an American citizen…We have reached out to the Government of Israel to ask for more information and request an investigation into the incident”. The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) stated that the incident is currently under review.