Key Takeaways
- The WHO has urged Israel to allow aid access to Gaza amid a severe humanitarian crisis.
- A polio vaccine campaign is underway in Gaza, aiming to immunize over half a million children.
- The campaign’s goal is to vaccinate at least 90 percent of children in Gaza to halt the spread of the virus.
Geneva: The WHO urged Israel to grant access to northern Gaza, where escalating violence has blocked humanitarian missions. This has hindered the delivery of critical food and medical supplies.
In the midst of chaos, the WHO and its partners launched the second round of a polio vaccination campaign, aiming to immunize over half a million children.
“The total number of children who received a second dose of polio vaccine in central Gaza after two days of vaccination is 156,943,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X.
However, ongoing violence threatens the campaign’s goal of vaccinating at least 90 percent of the children, a critical target to halt the virus’s spread. In addition to polio vaccines, children are receiving vitamin A supplements to strengthen their immunity.
WHO highlighted the severity of the situation, reporting that out of 54 scheduled United Nations missions to northern Gaza in October, only one has been successfully completed, with the rest either canceled or obstructed due to the conflict
