Gaza: School set for polio vaccine campaign hit in deadly strike, says UNRWA

This article is published in association with United Nations.

A second round of polio vaccinations for thousands of children began in central Gaza on Monday despite reported strikes on a school-turned-shelter in Nuseirat and a hospital courtyard in Deir Al-Balah where “multiple tents” were set ablaze as people slept.

“Throughout the night, I spoke to a colleague sheltering in the compound who told me, ‘We miraculously survived, the fire caught everywhere even the tent where we were sleeping burnt. The scene is terrifying,’” said Louise Wateridge, spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA.

Images shared by UNRWA showed rescue workers searching for survivors on Monday at the Al Aqsa hospital site, amid burnt-out tents and mangled metal frames.

More video footage showed an intense blaze and smoke emanating from the middle of a series of large, tented shelters, while emergency teams removed what appeared to be a badly burned body from the ground of a charred tent, after covering it with a blanket.

‘Humanity must prevail’

“Another night of horror in the middle areas…humanity must prevail” said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.

At the school that was hit in Nuseirat, 22 people were reportedly killed. The facility had been intended for use as a polio vaccination site on Monday. The strike was “just one of many incidents that we’ve had overnight in the Gaza Strip”, Ms. Wateridge told UN News. “These are people that are just sheltering. They’re just trying to find somewhere to sleep trying to find some safety in the Gaza strip where there absolutely is none.”

Since the war began, more than 140 UNRWA schools have come under attack.

Despite the ongoing war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas-led terror attacks in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, the UN agency confirmed that hundreds of UN staff and partners had started the second round of polio vaccinations for children on Monday. At one UNRWA school-turned-shelter in Deir Al Balah, youngsters lined up for their vaccine dose, a scene that’s set to be repeated across central Gaza for the next three days, until teams move to the south for another 72 hours.

“The aim is to reach around 590,000 children under 10 in less than two weeks,” UNRWA said.

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As part of the campaign, children will receive vitamin A in addition to the novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) vaccine, to help them withstand the threat of disease caused by their “extremely dire hygiene and sanitation conditions”.

Food aid blocked

According to the UN World Health Organization, the first round from 1 to 12 September successfully vaccinated 559,161 children, or an estimated 95 per cent of eligible youngsters at governorate level.

The most difficult area to vaccinate remains the north, where “no food aid” has entered since 1 October, UNRWA added, echoing warnings from the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, which said that “no essentials” had been allowed to cross checkpoints leading from the south to the north.

“The pressure on over 400,000 people remaining in northern Gaza to leave southwards is mounting,” said Muhannad Hadi, the UN’s top aid official in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Ordered to leave

In a statement, Humanitarian Coordinator Hadi noted that the Israeli military had reissued evacuation orders on 7, 9 and 12 October while hostilities “continue to escalate, resulting in more civilian suffering and casualties”. More than 50,000 people have been displaced from the Jabaliya camp area which remains beseiged, “while others remain stranded in their homes amid increased bombardment and fighting”, he said.

Needs in the north remain desperate, the senior UN official insisted, amid military operations that have closed “water wells, bakeries, medical points and shelters”, while also suspending protection services, malnutrition treatment and temporary learning spaces. Hospitals “have seen an influx of trauma injuries”, Mr. Hadi noted.