Abdul Rahman Abu Al-Jidyan was born in Gaza in September 2023. Like 90% of Gaza’s population, the little boy and his family have been displaced multiple times since the war began in the month following his birth. Then, a few weeks before his first birthday, baby Abdul Rahman developed a fever and began vomiting. He was diagnosed as Gaza’s first polio victim in 25 years.
Polio is a highly contagious disease that thrives on misery, of which there is plenty in Gaza. As of 3 June 2024, Israel has destroyed five water and sanitation sites every three days since the start of the war, according to a July report published by Oxfam. What possible military necessity justifies such catastrophic destruction that punishes the entire Palestinian population of Gaza indiscriminately? Israeli bombardment, the report details, has destroyed 70% of Gaza’s sewage pumps, all of Gaza’s wastewater treatment plants and Gaza’s two main water quality testing laboratories.
Unsurprisingly, communicable diseases are rising dramatically in this environment: close to a million cases of acute respiratory infections, over half a million cases of acute water diarrhoea, more than 100,000 cases of suspected hepatitis A infection. And now, polio.
The Israeli government’s first response to the discovery of polio in Gaza’s wastewater in July was to vaccinate its own troops, but international pressure – particularly American pressure, according to Israeli media – has led to a major immunization campaign in Gaza, as well as the reality that the disease, which obeys no borders, could easily appear next in Israel. Hamas and Israel have agreed to daily pauses in fighting for at least three days to facilitate the first round of vaccinations, with Israel stating it will “allow a humanitarian corridor” for travel for medical personnel and establish “designated safe areas” for the vaccination campaign. A second round must also be administered in four weeks for the vaccination to be effective.
It’s a relief that the first day the vaccinations were rolled out was largely considered a success, but as Malcolm X memorably stated: “If you stick a knife in my back 9 inches and pull it out 6 inches, there’s no progress.” The same day as the vaccines were distributed also witnessed one of the highest daily casualty tolls in months, with a reported 89 Palestinians killed and another 205 wounded in the span of 24 hours. And delivering the vaccinations continues to come with a host of risks, not least of which is a now deadly repetition of Israel firing on relief workers and medical personnel while they are performing their life-saving work.
On 30 August, an Israeli airstrike on an aid convoy organized by the US-based NGO Anera killed four Palestinians. (In its statement, Anera disputes Israel’s allegation that the four were armed.) That deadly strike came days after Israeli forces also fired 10 rounds at a World Food Programme vehicle at a military checkpoint, causing the WFP to suspend its operations in the Gaza Strip until further notice. Seven workers from the NGO World Central Kitchen were killed by an Israeli airstrike in April to international condemnation. Since October, at least 294 humanitarian aid workers have been killed in Gaza, and the number of humanitarian missions that Israel has denied this past August is almost double the number denied in July.
After Israeli authorities broke the news over the weekend that six Israeli hostages – including the Israeli American Hersh Goldberg-Polin – had been killed by Hamas and their bodies recovered, global attention has shifted away from Gaza’s horrors to Israel’s anguish. There is no question that Goldberg-Polin should be alive and free, as should Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Alex Lobanov and Ori Danino. What’s also true is that we almost never learn any of the names of the more than 40,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians and including over 10,000 children, who have been killed in this war, even though their lives are equally worth memorializing.
Enough. Abdul Rahman Abu Al-Jidyan should never have contracted polio in the first place. The Palestinian people deserve to be free from military occupation and premature death. Like all people, Palestinians should also be able to live their lives with dignity and respect. And this American-sponsored carnage, deeply unpopular across the world, including with American voters, must not be allowed to go on any longer.
Moustafa Bayoumi is a Guardian US columnist
