Gaza: The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Tuesday that 105,000 children under the age of ten have been immunized against polio in the northern Gaza Strip over the past two days, making up 88 percent of the target group in the latest immunization campaign.
According to Kuwait News Agency, WHO representative Richard Peeperkorn, speaking remotely from Gaza at a press briefing in Geneva, stated that attacks on vaccination sites and difficulties in accessing affected areas had impeded the campaign’s progress. He highlighted the intense strikes in northern Gaza, which have forced more than 150,000 people to flee to Gaza City, further complicating vaccination efforts.
Peeperkorn also reported that the number of patients and casualties medically evacuated had not exceeded 282 out of an estimated total of 12,000 to 14,000 people in need since the closure of the Rafah crossing in southern Gaza last May. He noted that an evacuation is scheduled for Wednesday, in which 113 people will be transferred throug
h the Kerem Shalom crossing, marking the largest such operation since the closure of Rafah in May.