Geneva [Switzerland], October 17: The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday urged Israel to grant access to northern Gaza, where escalating violence has blocked humanitarian missions from delivering critical food and medical supplies.
Amid the chaos, WHO and its partners launched the second round of a polio vaccination campaign on Monday, 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.
Source: Xinhua