CAIRO (AP) — Palestinian officials say an Israeli drone strike on a clinic in northern Gaza where children were being vaccinated against polio injured six people, including four children. The Israeli military denied responsibility.
The alleged attack took place on Saturday in northern Gaza, which has been surrounded by Israeli forces for the past year and is largely isolated. Israel has carried out another offensive there in recent weeks, killing hundreds of people and displacing tens of thousands.
It was not possible to resolve the conflicting accounts. Israeli forces have repeatedly raided hospitals in Gaza over the course of the war, saying Hamas uses them for militant purposes, accusations denied by Palestinian health officials.
Dr. Munir al-Boursh, director general of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, told The Associated Press that a quadcopter struck the Sheikh Radwan Clinic in Gaza City early Saturday afternoon, just a few minutes after a United Nations delegation entered the facility had left.
The World Health Organization and the UN children’s agency known as UNICEF, which are jointly implementing the polio vaccination campaign, expressed concern over the reported strike.
“The reports of this attack are even more disturbing because the Sheikh Radwan Clinic is one of the health centers where parents can get their children vaccinated,” said Rosalia Bollen, spokesperson for UNICEF.
“Today’s attack took place while the humanitarian pause was still in effect, despite assurances that the pause would be respected from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.”
Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, said that “contrary to claims, an initial investigation showed that the (Israeli army) did not strike in the area at the stated time.”
A scaled-down campaign to administer a second dose of the polio vaccine began in parts of northern Gaza on Saturday. It was postponed until October 23 due to lack of access, Israeli bombing and mass evacuation orders, and the lack of guarantees for humanitarian breaks, a UN statement said.
The administration of the first dose was carried out in September across the Gaza Strip, including areas in northern Gaza that are now under complete lockdown. Health officials said the first round of the campaign and the administration of the second dose in central and southern Gaza were successful.
At least 100,000 people have been forced to evacuate from areas of northern Gaza to Gaza City in recent weeks, but around 15,000 children under the age of 10 remain in inaccessible northern towns, including Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun. according to the UN
The final phase of the polio vaccination campaign aimed to reach an estimated 119,000 children in the north with a second dose of oral polio vaccine, the agencies said, but “achieving this goal is now unlikely due to access restrictions.”
They say 90% of children in every community need to be vaccinated to prevent the spread of the disease.
The campaign was launched after the first polio case in 25 years was reported in Gaza: a ten-month-old boy, now paralyzed in the leg. The World Health Organization said the presence of one paralysis case suggests there could be hundreds more who are infected but not showing symptoms.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping another 250. The Israeli offensive has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. Say how many fighters there were, but say that more than half were women and children.
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