Gaza: School preparing for polio vaccine campaign comes under deadly attack, UNRWA says
“During the night, I spoke to a colleague who was sheltering in the compound, who told me, ‘We miraculously survived, the fire spread everywhere, even the tent we were sleeping in burned down. The scene was terrifying” Louise Wateridge, spokeswoman for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, said: UNRWA.
Images shared by UNRWA showed rescue workers searching for survivors Monday in the Al Aqsa hospital area, amid burned tents and damaged metal frames.
More video footage showed intense flames and smoke pouring from the middle of a series of large tent shelters, while emergency crews removed what appeared to be a badly burned body from the ground of a the tent was charred black, after covering himself with a blanket.
‘Humanity must win’
“Another night of horror in the central region…humanity must prevail” speak UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini.
At the school attacked in Nuseirat, 22 people were said to have died. The facility was scheduled to be used as a polio vaccination site on Monday. The strike is “just one of many incidents we experienced overnight in the Gaza Strip”, Ms. Wateridge told UN News. “These are people who are just taking shelter. They’re just trying to find somewhere to sleep, trying to find safety in Gaza, where there’s absolutely nothing.”
Despite the ongoing war in Gaza, due to Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, the United Nations agency confirmed that hundreds of United Nations staff and other partners began the second round of polio vaccination for children on Monday. At a UNRWA school-turned-shelter in Deir Al Balah, young people lined up to receive their vaccine doses, a scene that would be repeated across central Gaza over the next three days, until teams move south for another 72 hours.
“The goal is to reach approximately 590,000 children under 10 years of age in less than two weeks,” UNRWA said.
As part of the campaign, children will receive vitamin A along with the new type 2 polio vaccine (nOPV2), to help them fight the threat of disease caused by “extremely poor sanitation and hygiene.” “caused”.
According to the United Nations World Health Organization, the first round From September 1 to 12, 559,161 children were successfully vaccinated, or about 95% of eligible youth at the provincial level.
The most difficult area to vaccinate is still the North, where “no food aid” has been in effect since October 1UNRWA added, echoing a warning from the United Nations aid coordination office, OCHAwhich speak that “no essentials” were allowed to pass through checkpoints leading from south to north.
“Pressure is increasing for the more than 400,000 people remaining in northern Gaza to leave for the south,” said Muhannad Hadi, the top U.N. aid official in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Ordered to leave
In a statement, Humanitarian Coordinator Hadi noted that the Israeli military reissued evacuation orders on October 7, 9 and 12 while hostilities “continued to escalate, leading to much suffering.” and civilian casualties.” More than 50,000 people had to evacuate The Jabaliya camp remains surrounded“While others remain trapped in their homes amid increasing fighting and shelling,” he said.
The senior UN official emphasized that the need in the north is still great, in the context of military operations that have closed “water wells, bakeries, medical points and shelters”, and suspended only protective services, malnutrition treatment and temporary learning spaces. Mr. Hadi noted that hospitals “have seen a series of trauma cases.”
