Like so many other Gaza residents, Eid al-Attar, a teacher in the northern Gaza Strip, spends his days trying to find enough food and water for his family to survive. Since the war began last October, the 42-year-old has been displaced eight times with his family and has done everything he can to protect his five children from the conflict. Today, the Palestinian territory faces a new threat: polio, a highly contagious and potentially deadly disease.
“We cannot protect our children. We are exposed to death at any time due to constant bombing and insecurity. And I cannot protect them from diseases either,” he said. Tutor at the start of a vaccination campaign led by the World Health Organization (WHO) last Sunday in Deir al Balah. “We live in a tent that does not protect us from anything, there is no medicine, there is garbage everywhere and the streets are full of sewage,” Al Attar laments.