One in five children has not received essential vaccinations in Gaza
Gaza City, Gaza (PANA) - As United Nations agencies prepare to launch a massive vaccination campaign for 44,000 children in the Gaza Strip, a new report reveals that one in five children has not received basic vaccinations after two years of war.
The study, published on Friday by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), estimates that 20% of children under three in the enclave have not received any doses of vaccine or have missed injections , "which exposes them to the risk of epidemics of vaccine-preventable diseases".
To address this situation, from 9 to 18 November, UNICEF , UNRWA, and the World Health Organization (WHO), in partnership with the Gaza Ministry of Health, will conduct the first phase of an integrated campaign encompassing vaccination, nutritional monitoring, and growth control . This operation, the first of its kind since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas in October 2023, aims to restore basic healthcare for tens of thousands of children deprived of essential services.
The teams involved in this campaign will administer routine vaccines against measles, mumps and rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, tuberculosis, polio, rotavirus and pneumonia.
Vaccinations will take place in nearly 150 health facilities and ten mobile clinics. "For its part, UNRWA will contribute through 24 health centers and medical points spread across the Gaza Strip, thus supporting this vital effort to restore essential care to children in Gaza," the agency said.
Before October 2023, Gaza had 54 vaccination centers and a 98% vaccination coverage rate. Today, 31 centers are no longer operational and coverage has fallen below 70%, according to the WHO. The arrival of winter makes the campaign even more urgent: childhood diseases are spreading throughout the territory.
“After two years of relentless violence that have claimed the lives of more than 20,000 children in the Gaza Strip, we finally have the opportunity to protect those who have survived,” said Jonathan Veitch, UNICEF Special Representative in Palestine. Two further phases, designed to administer booster doses, are planned for December 2025 and January 2026.
Meanwhile, the WHO is raising the alarm about the plight of 16,500 Palestinians in need of urgent medical care. "We urge more countries to take in patients from Gaza, as more than 16,500 people still need urgent medical care that is not available in the Gaza Strip," said the agency's director-general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on Thursday.
He called for the opening of all evacuation routes, including those from the occupied West Bank, such as East Jerusalem. In the past week, 50 patients have been evacuated; since October 1st, 146 people have left Gaza, including 88 children.
In the West Bank, the UN human rights office urged Israel to suspend demolition orders issued on October 28 against 11 homes and community infrastructure in Umm Al Khair, in the hills south of Hebron.
According to the office, these orders could trigger a new wave of forced displacement in this Bedouin community of 35 families, who have been living there since their expulsion from the Negev in 1948 and 1949, during the Nakba – the Arabic name given to the displacement of more than 700,000 Palestinians in the context of the first Arab-Israeli conflict.
"The case of Umm Al Khair is emblematic of the ever-increasing wave of measures taken by Israel to consolidate its annexation of the West Bank, particularly Area C, in violation of international law," denounced Ajith Sunghay, head of the bureau in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The residents of Umm Al Khair have been subjected to discriminatory land regulations and repeated demolitions for years . At the same time, Israeli settlers have been allowed to expand the nearby settlement of Carmel and erect new outposts.
Despite an injunction from the Jerusalem District Court to suspend these works, the authorities have taken no action to enforce it , contrasting with the speed of Palestinian demolitions.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) concluded in 2024 that the expansion of settlements, demolitions and seizures of Palestinian land create a coercive environment forcing residents to flee, which constitutes a forced transfer, tantamount to a war crime.
This dynamic is taking place in a climate of impunity: settler violence has intensified since 7 October, 2023. On July 28, 2025, an Israeli settler shot and killed Palestinian rights defender Owdeh Hathaleen during a protest against the construction of a new road leading to a settlement.
Despite the video evidence, the alleged perpetrator was placed under house arrest for three days before being released without further charges.
-0- PANA MA 9Nov2025
