The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said that more than 150 children have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7, 2023.
Lazzarini explained in a post on the X platform on Friday that Israeli attacks in the northern West Bank continue to affect Palestinian refugees in the area.
He said that tens of thousands of residents of four refugee camps in the north were affected by the Israeli attacks, and the infrastructure in those camps was also damaged.
The UN official said that UNRWA was forced to suspend its services in some West Bank camps.
Israeli security forces’ operations in northern #WestBank continue impacting Palestine Refugees.
Among the people reported killed are children & one person with disabilities.
More than 150 Palestinian children were killed in the West Bank since the war started on 7 October…
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) August 30, 2024
Tackling polio
In another context, Richard Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization representative in the occupied Palestinian territories, stated that the polio vaccination campaign, which will begin in early September for more than 640,000 children in the Gaza Strip, will be carried out in two phases.
Pepperkorn explained in a press conference in Geneva yesterday, Friday, that the campaign targets children under the age of ten, and is being carried out in cooperation between the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UNRWA, and the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
He stressed that preparations for vaccination operations have been completed, and that 1.26 million vaccine doses and 500 vaccine carriers have been delivered to Gaza.
He added that an additional 400,000 doses will arrive in Gaza soon, noting the need for a vaccination rate of no less than 90% to stop the epidemic and prevent the spread of polio.
Last Wednesday morning, the Israeli occupation army began a large-scale and ongoing military operation in the governorates of Tulkarm, Jenin and Tubas in the northern occupied West Bank, the largest since 2002, which has so far resulted in the martyrdom of 20 Palestinians.
The occupation army also escalated its attacks and raids on cities and towns in the West Bank, coinciding with its devastating war on the Gaza Strip. These attacks led to the martyrdom of more than 673 Palestinians, including 150 children, and the injury of more than 5,400 Palestinians, in addition to the arrest of about 10,000 others.
