Toddlers wounded in Israeli airstrike hours after getting polio vaccine in Gaza, aunt says

WARNING: This story contains graphic images of injuries to children.

In the early afternoon on Sept. 3, the Al-Daqqi sisters waited in line in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, as a brief humanitarian pause allowed for an immunization campaign to protect them against polio and the possibility of paralysis. 

Hours later, Hanan and Misk Al-Daqqi found themselves amputees and without a mother after their home was hit by an Israeli airstrike minutes after the pause ended.

Hanan, 3, lost her legs. Misk, 1, had to get her left foot amputated. 

Hanan "was in her mother's lap, [but] the airstrike caused her to fly onto the neighbour's house," said the girls' aunt, Shafa Al-Daqqi, speaking from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

"They are allowing for polio immunization, but then not even hours later they find themselves without legs. What good is it that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu allowed for the immunization?"

Israeli assaults have killed more than 41,000 Palestinians and wounded roughly 95,000 since the war began last fall, according to the latest figures supplied by the local Health Ministry in Gaza. The conflict followed Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, rampage in Israel, when its fighters killed 1,200 people and captured more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel Defence Forces did not respond to a request from CBC News about the Sept. 3 airstrike in Deir al-Balah.

And as ceasefire talks spearheaded by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt continue without action, the number of dead and wounded civilians keeps mounting.

Campaigns like the polio vaccination — held during an eight-hour humanitarian pause in a designated safe zone between Israel and Hamas on Sept. 3 — are part of international aid efforts to curb the number of deaths from malnutrition and illness. The World Health Organization confirmed last month that a baby was partially paralyzed by the Type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.

Mother killed, father in critical condition

But Hanan and Misk's aunt said she wonders if there's a point to a vaccination campaign to protect children from the virus, if bombing continues immediately after the pause in fighting ends.

"Look at what happened to our children.... Is there more than amputation? On top of the fear that they're in, and there is no future, that's gone," Al-Daqqi said. "There's no future, there's no childhood. On top of it, the amputation of legs."

Al-Daqqi said the girls' 25-year-old mother, Shaymaa Al-Daqqi, was killed on the spot, holding a phone in her hand. 

Their father, Mohammed Al-Daqqi, was wounded and required several amputations to his fingers. His sister said he remains in critical condition and will have to undergo several major surgeries. 

Now, Al-Daqqi said she is responsible for her nieces and is their sole guardian as she prays for the safe recovery of their father. And the lack of medical equipment and treatment in Gaza has left the girls in a lot of pain, she said.

"The biggest loss is their mother and their other loss is their legs," Al-Daqqi said tearfully, calling on other countries to intervene and help provide urgent medical attention and treatment for wounded children in Gaza.

The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) hopes to keep delivering preventive health care, planning a second round of polio immunizations, according to the agency, with a target of vaccinating 640,000 children in Gaza. But with 90 per cent of the population displaced and much of the territory blanketed in rubble, such a large-scale campaign poses major challenges.