THE WORLD HEALTH Organisation has said that four children were among six people wounded in a strike on a polio vaccination centre in northern Gaza.

The UN agency only restarted the second round of vaccinations in northern Gaza on Saturday after being forced to suspend them earlier because of Israeli bombardments.

WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the health centre was “in an area where a humanitarian pause was agreed to allow vaccination to proceed” and the attack could off parents of children needing a second vaccine to be covered.

He did not specify who carried out the strike but Israel rejected a claim by a Gaza source that one of its drones fired missiles at the centre.

The Gaza civil defence agency source told AFP that it was “an Israeli quadcopter that fired two missiles which hit the wall of Sheikh Radwan clinic”.

We have received an extremely concerning report that the Sheikh Radwan primary health care centre in northern #Gaza was struck today while parents were bringing their children to the life-saving #polio vaccination in an area where a humanitarian pause was agreed to allow… pic.twitter.com/YaFL6pQT3c

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 2, 2024

An Israeli military statement said: “The IDF (army) is aware of claims regarding the injury of Palestinian civilians in the Sheikh Radwan vaccination center in the northern Gaza Strip.”

It added: “Contrary to the claims, an initial review determined that the IDF did not strike in the area at the specified time.”

“We have received an extremely concerning report that the Sheikh Radwan primary health care centre in northern Gaza was struck today while parents were bringing their children to the life-saving polio vaccination in an area where a humanitarian pause was agreed,” Tedros said.

“Six people, including four children, were injured,” he added.

The Israeli military has been pounding northern Gaza for weeks in a major offensive it says is aimed at stopping Hamas militants from regrouping.

UN agency chiefs have spoken of an “apocalyptic” situation in north Gaza which has been “denied basic aid and life-saving supplies”.

The second vaccination drive began last month after a successful first round that saw almost 600,000 children receive a first dose of the novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) vaccine in September. 

There has been a resurgence of the virus in Gaza due to Israel’s military offensive, which has seen 2.4 million residents forced to flee their homes and take refuge elsewhere, often in cramped and unsanitary conditions. 

In July, the WHO warned that the polio virus was detected in wastewater samples in Gaza, and the Israeli military began to vaccinate its soldiers operating in Gaza as a result. 

In August, the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years was recorded as a ten-month-old baby was paralysed due to the disease. 

It prompted a massive vaccination effort targeting at least 90% of children under ten, which was aided by localised “humanitarian pauses” in fighting.

Tedros said a WHO team was at the site just before the strike on Saturday.

“This attack, during humanitarian pause, jeopardises the sanctity of health protection for children and may deter parents from bringing their children for vaccination,” he added.

The WHO says some 119,000 children in the north are awaiting a second dose, while 452,000 have been vaccinated in central and southern Gaza.

Typically spread through sewage and contaminated water, poliovirus is highly infectious.

It can cause deformities and paralysis, and is potentially fatal, mainly affecting children under five.

The current conflict in Gaza has been ongoing since Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed 43,314 people in Gaza, a majority civilians, according to figures from the Palestinian health ministry which the UN considers reliable.

With reporting from © AFP 2024