Belgium: minister warns of polio outbreak in Gaza

Belgium’s Minister of Development Cooperation has warned of the spread of epidemics and polio in the Gaza Strip as a result of the ongoing Israeli offensive. Caroline Gennez called for immediate negotiations to reach a ceasefire.

“The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is unbearable after 10 months of conflict, said Gennez on X. “Hunger and epidemics have free rein.” She stressed the need for an immediate cessation of the genocidal aggression on the Strip. “This must stop.”

Access to water, food and health services “is not a weapon of war and should not be used for this purpose under any circumstances,” the minister added.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned on Tuesday of the rapid spread of poliovirus in the Gaza Strip, insisting that a ceasefire is necessary to allow children to be vaccinated against the disease, which causes certain limbs to be immobile for the rest of their lives. “The quick spread of polio threatens all children in Gaza, already weakened by displacement, deprivation and malnourishment,” he said on X.

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Urging an immediate three-day ceasefire, independent of wider negotiations, to enable the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF to conduct vaccinations, Borrell added, “Our humanity demands it.”

Gaza’s Health Ministry announced the first confirmed case of polio in the Gaza Strip in 25 years on 16 August, in the city of Deir Al-Balah. The case involved a 10-month-old baby who had not received any doses of the polio vaccine.

The disease primarily affects children under the age of five, with one in 200 infections leading to irreversible paralysis. According to the WHO, between five and ten per cent of those paralysed die due to the failure of their respiratory muscles to function.

Israel is continuing its brutal offensive on Gaza which began after the cross-border incursion by Hamas last October. The onslaught has killed over 40,500 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and wounded nearly 94,000 others, according to local health authorities. Vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice for its actions in the blockaded enclave. The apartheid state denies the allegation.

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