The Gaza Ministry of Health announced that 45 cases of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) have been recorded in the last two months, with Israeli forces expanding their starvation and genocide campaign.
Acute flaccid paralysis is a clinical syndrome characterized by the rapid onset of muscle weakness or paralysis and mainly affects children according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The rise in cases has been attributed to worsening environmental and health conditions and severe malnutrition. This is in-line with WHO information on the transmission and potential causes of the syndrome, which include poliovirus and other viral infections and autoimmune diseases and conditions such as transverse myelitis and Guillain-Barré syndrome. Indeed, polio re-emerged recently in Gaza, once declared polio-free in 1999.
International Reactions Increase but Remain Far From Effective
On Monday, July 21, the foreign ministers of 26 states (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK), and the EU Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management released a statement calling on all parties to stop the conflict.
The statement said that it “is horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid” and described the Israeli Government’s “denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population” as “unacceptable”. It called on the Israeli government to lift restrictions on aid, on all parties to respect international humanitarian law, and on Hamas to release hostages, and urged all parties and the international community to “bring this terrible conflict to an end”.
The statement was welcomed by a number of actors, but was widely described as “useless” in case it does not come from active and concrete steps to stop Israel’s starvation and genocide campaign.
On Tuesday, 15 more people died of hunger in Gaza, with deaths from famine rising at an unprecedented rate with the total now at 101 according to Megaphone.
