CAIRO – Palestinian officials said that Israel carried out a drone attack on a clinic where children were located in the north of Gaza. polio vaccine was being administered 6 people, including 4 children, were injured. The Israeli army denied responsibility.

The alleged attack took place in northern Gaza on Saturday. Surrounded by Israeli forces and was largely isolated last year. Israel makes another attack It was there that killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands in recent weeks.

It was not possible to resolve the conflicting accounts. Israeli forces They raided hospitals many times While they claimed that Hamas in Gaza used them for militant purposes throughout the war, Palestinian health officials denied these claims.

Gaza Ministry of Health general director Dr. Munir al-Boursh told The Associated Press that a quadcopter crashed into the Sheikh Radwan clinic in Gaza City on Saturday afternoon, just minutes after the United Nations delegation left the facility.

The World Health Organization, which jointly runs the polio vaccine campaign, and the UN children’s agency known as UNICEF expressed concern about the reported strike.

“Reports of this attack are even more disturbing as the Sheikh Radwan Clinic is one of the health points where parents can get their children vaccinated,” said UNICEF spokeswoman Rosalia Bollen.

“Today’s attack took place while the humanitarian pause was still in effect, despite assurances that the 6am to 4pm halt would be respected.”

Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said, “Contrary to the claims, the initial investigation determined that the Israeli army did not attack the region at the specified time.”

A scaled-back campaign to administer the second dose of the polio vaccine began in some areas of northern Gaza on Saturday. It had been postponed from October 23 due to lack of access, Israeli bombings and mass evacuation orders, and lack of assurances regarding humanitarian pauses, according to a UN statement.

The first dose was administered in the Gaza Strip in September; this includes areas of northern Gaza that are now completely sealed off. 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 in northern Gaza towards Gaza City in the past few weeks, but approximately 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 latest phase of the polio vaccination campaign aims to reach an estimated 119,000 children in the north with a second dose of oral polio vaccine, but “due to access restrictions, achieving this target is now unlikely,” the agencies said.

They say 90 percent of children in every community should be vaccinated to prevent the spread of the disease.

The campaign was launched later first case of polio Reported in Gaza in 25 years – A 10-month-old boy is currently paralyzed in his leg. The World Health Organization said the presence of one case of stroke indicates there may be hundreds more who are infected but do not show symptoms.

The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants raided southern Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 250 others. Israel’s offensive has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials. They say how many of them are warriors, but they say more than half are women and children.

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