About 15,000 children under the age of 10 in villages north of the Gaza Strip, including Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, are “still hard to reach” and excluded from vaccination campaigns. Efficiency will be reduced, the agency said.
WHO targeted 119,000 children in the region to receive their second dose of oral polio vaccine.
“Current access restrictions make it impossible to achieve this goal,” the agency added.
The first vaccination campaign successfully reached 559,000 children under the age of 10 in three phases in southern, central and northern Gaza from 1 to 12 September, during a local “humanitarian moratorium” agreed upon by Israeli and Palestinian groups. There was a “stop.”
But according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the areas agreed in the latest humanitarian pause have been “significantly reduced” compared to the first round of vaccinations and are currently limited to the Gaza Strip.
From the start of the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza, medical experts have emphasized that delays in administering the second dose could jeopardize overall efforts to stop the spread of the contagious and potentially fatal disease.
To stop transmission, at least 90% of all children need to receive at least two doses.
The UN human rights chief said last week that the ‘darkest moment’ of the Gaza war was unfolding in northern Gaza.
Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed since the Israeli military launched a ground offensive in Beit Lahia and nearby Jabalia and Beit Hanoun on October 6, an action it said was aimed at opposing the regrouping of Hamas fighters.
WHO said at least 100,000 people had to evacuate from northern Gaza towards Gaza City for their safety.
A joint statement by UN agencies, including WHO, released on Friday said the situation was “apocalyptic” and the entire Palestinian population in the region was “at imminent risk of death from disease, famine and violence.”
The United Nations estimates that about 100,000 people are living in dire conditions, with severe shortages of food, water and medical supplies.
The United States warned Israel this week to immediately increase humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip as a deadline to increase aid or cut U.S. military aid approaches. The U.S. envoy to the United Nations said Tuesday that Israel’s words “must be matched by action,” but said that “is not happening.”
Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which left approximately 1,200 people dead and 251 taken hostage.
Since then, more than 43,300 people have died in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
