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Northern Gaza-bound UN convoy stopped ahead of polio vaccination campaign in the area – WHO
Safe and sustained access is essential for the success of the polio vaccination campaign in Northern Gaza and UN humanitarians will try again to reach the area with fuel following an attempt blocked by the Israeli military, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
A UN convoy on its way to the north of the Strip was stopped on Monday by Israeli forces and “after waiting for eight hours, this mission had to be aborted,” WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević told reporters in Geneva.
The convoy was composed of two missions, Mr. Jašarević explained. One was bringing fuel and vehicles for the third phase of the polio campaign starting on Tuesday in the north of the Strip, following the vaccination of more than 446,000 children in central and southern Gaza earlier this month. Another WHO team was trying to bring desperately needed fuel to Gaza City’s embattled Al-Shifa hospital. The enclave’s largest medical centre reopened its emergency department in early September after its destruction in an Israeli raid in November 2023 following claims that Palestinian armed groups were using the site for military purposes.
“This is not an isolated incident,” according to Mr. Jašarević, who deplored the lack of a “functioning deconfliction mechanism,” 11 months into the conflict. Between 7 and 10 September, UN health agency teams tried to reach Al-Shifa hospital four times with no success. “But we will try again today,” the WHO spokesperson said. “We really do our best, but this is a pattern: in August the number of denied requests for access doubled compared to previous months,” he insisted.
Access is required for some 200,000 children to receive their first dose of the oral polio vaccine by 12 September in parts of northern Gaza in which humanitarian pauses have been agreed. WHO confirmed that vaccines, cold chain equipment and finger markers were delivered to the area on Monday.
Medical staff are proceeding with the administration of vaccines despite the dire need for fuel for the movement of vehicles for vaccination teams.
But the health needs in Gaza “are immense and go well beyond polio,” Mr. Jašarević said. The little fuel that is available is desperately needed not only by hospitals, but also by bakeries and desalination plants. Northern Gaza’s Indonesian hospital has had to shut down some of its services in order to prolong the working hours of other departments, according to WHO. “Health workers have been faced with this challenge on how best to use the little fuel they have,” Mr. Jašarević emphasized. “These are choices that health workers should never be making. They should have all necessary conditions to perform lifesaving activities.”
Once the first round of the polio vaccination campaign wraps up in northern Gaza, a second dose will need to be administered four weeks later. The campaign was launched on 1 September, following the confirmation that a baby had been partially paralyzed by type 2 polio virus last month, the first case detected in the territory in 25 years.
Routine immunizations and other vital health services have been impeded by Israel’s military campaign in Gaza following Hamas’ attacks in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage. The resulting war in Gaza has killed more than 40,900 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s health authorities.
Ends -
Story: “Gaza: UN convoy blocked – WHO” – 10 September 2024
Speaker: Tarik Jašarević, spokesperson, UN World Health Organization (WHO)
TRT: 02’20”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 10 September 2024 - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Geneva Press briefing
SHOTLIST
- Exterior medium shot: UN flag alley.
- Wide shot of the press conference room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Tarik Jašarević, spokesperson, UN World Health Organization (WHO): “This convoy was composed of two missions: one mission was to bring fuel and vehicles for (the) polio campaign. But there was also at the same place, at the same moment, there was another team of WHO that was trying to get to Al-Shifa hospital to bring fuel to them. Well, this mission, after waiting for eight hours, had to be aborted.”
- Wide shot of the press conference room and control room at the back.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Tarik Jašarević, spokesperson, UN World Health Organization (WHO): "This is not isolated. It's like, as I said, we have been trying to get to Al-Shifa hospital between 7 and 10 September for four times. And we were unable, but we’ll try again today. So, we do really our best, but this is a pattern and, as I said, in August, the number of denied requests for access doubled comparing to previous months.”
- Medium shot: journalists at the press conference room taking notes.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Tarik Jašarević, spokesperson, UN World Health Organization (WHO): “We do our best and we will try again today to bring fuel, both for Al-Shifa hospital that you will remember somehow resumed its activities from late July, and for the polio vaccination campaign. But for that again, we need the access.”
- Medium shot: back of the podium and TV screen in the press conference room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Tarik Jašarević, spokesperson, UN World Health Organization (WHO): “Whether you use your fuel to make bakeries functioning, or use (it) for desalination plants so you get a clean water or you use (it) in hospitals and then, you know, hospitals quite often, health workers, have been faced with this challenge on how best to use the little fuel they have.”
- Medium shot of the podium with speakers and press conference room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Tarik Jašarević, spokesperson, UN World Health Organization (WHO): “These are choices that health workers should never be making. Health workers should have all necessary conditions to perform lifesaving activities they do.”
- Medium and close shots of journalists taking notes.
- Medium shot of camera and control room from the press conference room.
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As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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