Amid bombardment in Gaza, UN aid teams resume polio vaccinations in north
UN aid teams prepared to enter northern Gaza at the weekend to resume a mass polio vaccination campaign despite the daily dangers from ongoing bombardment, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, said on Friday.
Speaking to UN News from middle Gaza against a backdrop of intermittent explosions, UNRWA Senior Emergency Officer Louise Wateridge described increasingly dire conditions in the enclave, more than a year since Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel sparked the war.
“Things are really intensifying here. The desperation is just everywhere,” she said. “Already my colleagues I've been speaking to, they just don't know what to do anymore, they don't know where to go, you might hear behind me now, there are continued bombardments going on.”
UNRWA’s efforts to help Gaza’s most vulnerable communities have continued as Israeli legislation passed this week threatens to shut it down. The move has been condemned by UN agencies and beyond, as supporters of the UN agency has reiterated its unique role across the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
“I've sat here for 12 months telling people how every day it gets worse, every day it gets worse. Without UNRWA, that will continue,” Ms. Wateridge said. “I don't even want to imagine the reality on the ground if the largest aid operation in the Gaza Strip is prevented from doing their jobs, because at the moment they're doing everything they can to keep people going to keep people having food, basic medical supplies, you know, prevent disease. We're about to start the second round of polio again tomorrow in the north.”
The polio vaccination campaign in Gaza’s north – coordinated by UNRWA, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) – aims to reach an estimated 119,000 children under 10 years old with a second dose of novel oral polio vaccine type 2. “However, achieving this target is now unlikely due to access constraints,” WHO said on Friday.
The campaign in northern Gaza follows two successful phases of the second round of vaccinations in central and southern Gaza, which reached 451,216 children – 96 per cent of the objective in these areas.
In the past few weeks, at least 100,000 people have been forced to evacuate from north Gaza towards Gaza City for their own safety, WHO said.
Some 15,000 children under 10 years old who remain in north Gaza towns including Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun “still remain inaccessible and will be missed during the campaign, compromising its effectiveness”, the UN health agency said. To interrupt poliovirus transmission, at least 90 per cent of all children must be vaccinated.
After more than a year of destruction, disease spread and death, UNRWA’s Ms. Wateridge said that “hopelessness is really the only word left for Gaza. There's nowhere for anyone to go. You know, 2.2 million people - you have to remind everybody - that they're trapped, there is no way out of the Gaza Strip, and this bombing just continues all day, all night.”
UN staff have also been heavily marked by the experience, the UNRWA spokesperson said, pointing out that morale is “very low. It's been one year where colleagues have been working, they've been putting their lives on the line and many have paid the ultimate price that many have lost their lives in this war they have been killed.”
Shutting down UNRWA would have a devastating impact on Gaza, Ms. Wateridge insisted, as the UN agency “knows the community and the community knows UNRWA. Without UNRWA here, it's impossible for other agencies to come in and do the vast amount of work that UNRWA does.”
Story: “Gaza Humanitarian Update – UNRWA” – 01 November 2024
Speaker: UNRWA Senior Emergency Officer Louise Wateridge
TRT: 02’31”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 01 November 2024 – GAZA. Broll taken 1 November 2024 in Middle Gaza and on 31 October 2024 in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
RESTRICTIONS: None
SHOTLIST
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNICEF , WHO
Two years of Gaza-Israel war bring ‘indescribable’ pain: UN humanitarians
Two years since the Hamas-led terror attacks on Israel, UN humanitarians on Tuesday reiterated calls for the release of all hostages in Gaza, an immediate ceasefire and an aid surge to alleviate Palestinians’ suffering, as talks on a US-driven peace plan continued in Egypt.
1
1
1
Edited News
Syria prison survivor seeks justice for the missing with UN backing.
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Friday warned that three and a half years after Russia’s full-scale invasion, the war in Ukraine has entered an even more dangerous and deadly stage for Ukrainian civilians, under relentless bombardment of their schools, hospitals, and shelters.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNICEF , WHO , ICRC
Quadcopter victims, terror and death: 30 minutes in a Gaza hospital
UN aid teams on Friday highlighted the disturbing situation in Gaza’s makeshift hospitals, where premature babies cry for scant oxygen and medics attempt to save child survivors targeted by airstrikes in their tents and quadcopter victims reportedly shot while fetching bread.
2
1
2
Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Thursday delivered his oral update to the UN Human Rights Council’s 60th session on the human rights situation in Haiti.
The High Commissioner welcomed Wednesday’s decision of the UN Security Council to strengthen the Multinational Security Support mission by transitioning to the Gang Suppression Force for Haiti, stating it is a strong signal of international support for the Haitian people.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNICEF
Gaza: As world waits for US peace plan news, UN aid teams stress need for ceasefire
UN agencies reiterated calls for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza on Tuesday to help alleviate Palestinian suffering, as a new US 20-point plan raised hopes of a halt to the fighting.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
The ongoing Israeli military offensive in Gaza City continues to overwhelm the war-torn enclave’s medical professionals, with four more hospitals forced to shut down this month alone, the UN World Health Organization said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
A UN Human Rights report released today details the dire situation of thousands of civilians detained since Russia’s full-scale armed attack on Ukraine in 2022.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO , UNICEF
Sudan war: Life-saving cholera vaccination campaign begins in Darfur
Amid the devastating war in Sudan, UN aid teams are overcoming major obstacles to curb a cholera outbreak claiming lives across the country, with young children particularly at risk.
2
1
2
Edited News , B-roll | UN WOMEN
Women and girls still reeling from Afghanistan's recent deadly earthquake face even greater suffering rebuilding their lives and livelihoods without much more help from the international community, UN Women said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
Rising civilian casualties, growing ethnic violence and the grim humanitarian situation in Sudan underscore how the crisis there is deepening, according to a UN Human rights report published today.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNITED NATIONS
United Nations agencies staff demonstrates on Place des Nations in Geneva to denounce the killing of their colleagues in Gaza.