It was a race against the clock. At 6 a.m., hostilities would pause in one part of Gaza and health workers rushed to gather polio vaccines from places where they could be safely refrigerated, put them into cold storage boxes, and head to the field. They then would vaccinate as many children as possible.
They were up against a deadline — Israel and Hamas agreed to only a partial pause in hostilities between Sept. 1 and 12 so health workers could conduct a vaccination campaign after the first case of polio was confirmed in the Gaza Strip after it had been free of the disease for 25 years.
During each day of the campaign, the humanitarian pause lifted at 2 p.m., according to Louise Wateridge, senior communications officer at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, meaning health workers had to wrap up by around 1 p.m. so they could safely return to their families.
About the author
Sara Jervingsarajerving
Sara Jerving is a Senior Reporter at Devex, where she covers global health. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, VICE News, and Bloomberg News among others. Sara holds a master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she was a Lorana Sullivan fellow. She was a finalist for One World Media's Digital Media Award in 2021; a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists in 2018; and she was part of a VICE News Tonight on HBO team that received an Emmy nomination in 2018. She received the Philip Greer Memorial Award from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2014.
