GENEVA: The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that it aims to vaccinate more than 40,000 children against various diseases in Gaza, as it takes advantage of the recent ceasefire.
The WHO and its partners already vaccinated over 10,000 children under the age of three in the first eight days of an initial phase of the campaign launched on November 9.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said phase one of the program has been extended until Saturday and hopes to protect children against measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B, tuberculosis, polio, rotavirus and pneumonia.
Phases two and three of the campaign, which is being conducted in collaboration with UNICEF, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and the health ministry in Gaza under Hamas control, are planned for December and January.
The WHO chief said he was “encouraged to see that the ceasefire continues to hold, as it allows the WHO and its partners to intensify essential health services across Gaza and support the necessary re-equipment and reconstruction of its devastated health system.”
The UN Security Council voted on Monday to endorse the plan of US President Donald Trump, which facilitated the establishment of a ceasefire on October 10 between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The truce has already been marked by several outbreaks of violence in the Palestinian territory, devastated by over two years of hostilities triggered by the bloody attack by Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023.
That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count of official data.
More than 69,500 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military’s retaliatory campaign, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN, does not specify the number of combatants killed but indicates that more than half of the deaths are minors and women.
WHO aims to vaccinate 40,000 children in Gaza Strip
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WHO aims to vaccinate 40,000 children in Gaza Strip
- Under Phase 1 of the drive, WHO and partners vaccinated over 10,000 children since November 9
- Phases 2 and 3 of the campaign are planned for December and January, WHO director-general said
Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 12
- Strikes hit locations in northern and southern Gaza, including an apartment building in Gaza City and a tent in Khan Younis
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Hospitals in Gaza said Israeli strikes killed at least 12 Palestinians Saturday, one of the highest tolls since an October agreement aimed at stopping the fighting.
The strikes hit locations in northern and southern Gaza, including an apartment building in Gaza City and a tent in Khan Younis, officials at hospitals that received the bodies said. The casualties included two women and six children from two different families.
The Shifa Hospital said the Gaza City strike took killed a mother, three children and one of their relatives, while the Nasser Hospital said a strike in a tent camp caused a fire to break out, killing seven, including a father, his three children and three grandchildren.
Gaza’s Health Ministry has recorded more than 500 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the start of the ceasefire on Oct. 10. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.
Israel’s military did not immediately respond to questions about the strikes.
