A family forced to evacuate their home in Gaza. More than 520,000 children in Gaza receive first dose of polio vaccine Peace and Security
The third phase of the first round of the polio vaccination campaign began in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported.
“The polio vaccination campaign in southern Gaza has ended, with more than 446,000 children vaccinated since it began on September 1 [to August 8],” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on his X platform page the day before. “Five health facilities will continue to provide polio immunizations to ensure that no child is left behind.”
“The children of Gaza deserve lasting peace, not just polio vaccines,” he added.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said it had provided vaccines to more than 77,000 children in the northern enclave and in Gaza City. According to UNRWA, more than 520,000 children have been vaccinated. The vaccination campaign in the northern regions will continue until September 12.
Access to education
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the new school year in Gaza was supposed to start on September 9, but it did not happen. Another group of first-graders now finds themselves among the hundreds of thousands of children already denied access to school as a result of the conflict.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said the agency had been forced to close all its schools, turning them into shelters. “Classrooms that used to accommodate schoolchildren are now either overcrowded with displaced families or destroyed,” he said in a post on Platform X.
He also said that the longer children are out of school, the greater the risk of creating conditions for extremism among them in the future.
Respect for humanitarian law
UNRWA, citing data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said humanitarian access in Gaza remains severely restricted, with the number of Israeli refusals to allow aid missions almost doubling in August compared to July (105 compared to 53).
On Tuesday, the UN Secretary-General condemned Israeli air strikes on a densely populated area in Khan Younis that have killed civilians, including children. According to a statement from his press service, the UN chief also strongly condemned the incident in which 12 UN workers, whose plans were known in advance to Israeli forces, were stopped at a checkpoint.
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Gaza: UN convoy incident and shelling of Khan Younis
The humanitarian workers were heading to northern Gaza to take part in a polio vaccination campaign. Israeli forces opened fire with live ammunition, and the UN vehicles were trapped between a military tank and a bulldozer. The convoy and its staff were held at the checkpoint for seven and a half hours, preventing them from carrying out their humanitarian tasks.
The Secretary-General reiterated that international humanitarian law must be respected at all times by all parties to the conflict. He also called on the parties to protect civilians, including humanitarian workers, and to facilitate humanitarian access.