Since January 2024, 16 incidents involving UN vehicles being directly hit in Gaza : Valley Vision

The Humanitarian Situation Update issued by OCHA Occupied Palestinian Territory on Monday stated that Since January 2024, 16 incidents involving UN vehicles being directly hit have been recorded in Gaza. The figure comes as last week, the United Nations World Food Programme temporarily suspended the movement of its employees across the Gaza Strip, saying at least 10 bullets struck one of its marked vehicles as it approached an Israeli military checkpoint.

“Insecurity and access restrictions continue to jeopardize humanitarian efforts,” the update summarised.

On 30 August, Anera reported that an Israeli airstrike killed four Palestinians at the front of its aid convoy carrying food and fuel to the Emirati Red Crescent Hospital.

Meanwhile, area-specific humanitarian pauses have enabled the first round of the emergency polio vaccination campaign on 1 September in central Gaza.

Nearly 87,000 children were reached on the first day, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO Representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Dr. Richard Peeperkorn, stated that the joint effort among the Ministry of Health, WHO, UNICEF, UNRWA and partners would be undertaken in phases, focusing on one zone at a time – starting in central Gaza, before shifting to the south, and finally to the northern governorates.

Some 2,180 health workers and community outreach workers have been trained to provide vaccinations and inform communities about the campaign which is being rolled out through 392 fixed points and almost 300 mobile teams.

The campaign will last three consecutive days in each zone and will be extended by a fourth day if needed. Round two of the campaign will aim to administer the second dose of the vaccine in four weeks. The overall objective is to reach more than 640,000 children under the age of 10 across the Gaza Strip in each of the two rounds.

This is a “massive, massive effort, we’ve had thousands upon thousands of people working around the clock over the past several weeks to get ready for the launch of the campaign today”, stressed the UNRWA Director of Planning, Sam Rose, on 1 September, adding that UNRWA alone had over 200 teams administrating the vaccines in UNRWA clinics and health points; going tent-to-tent to reach the most vulnerable children.