'Sewage has overwhelmed the streets after months of heavy bombardments'
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00:00In Deir el-Bala and elsewhere in the Gaza Strip, sewage has overwhelmed the streets
00:05after months of heavy bombardments.
00:08Sewage in which the poliovirus was detected in July.
00:12And now, the disease has been found in a 10-month-old baby.
00:16Having one case means that the virus is present in the Gaza Strip and we can confirm there
00:22may be infected people not yet detected.
00:24We are talking about an epidemic.
00:27This virus will not just stay in the Gaza Strip, nor just in the West Bank or Palestine.
00:31It will spread to neighbouring countries, the region and the whole world.
00:37For the international community, it's time to act.
00:41Polio can cause irreversible paralysis in a matter of hours.
00:44It has been 25 years since polio was last detected in the Gaza Strip and the United
00:49Nations has sounded the alarm.
00:51Let's be clear.
00:53The ultimate vaccine for polio is peace and an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
01:00But in any case, a polio pause is a must.
01:05It is impossible to conduct a polio vaccination campaign with war raging all over.
01:12The World Health Organisation and UNICEF have also previously called for a seven-day
01:16humanitarian pause in order to vaccinate 640,000 children under the age of 10.
01:23More than 1.6 million doses are due to be delivered to Gaza by the end of August but
01:27these vaccination campaigns require considerable logistics.
01:32Medical teams need money, fuel to get around and functioning internet to warn the population.
01:38But the Israeli army controls all the entrances to the Gaza Strip and only a handful of aid
01:44workers are still able to enter the territory.