At least 50 children killed in Gaza’s Jabalia in two days

GAZA CITY

More than 50 children were reportedly killed in northern Gaza’s Jabalia area in the past 48 hours, UNICEF said on Nov. 2, warning that the entire population faces imminent danger from disease, starvation and relentless bombings.

The children died when airstrikes targeted two residential buildings sheltering hundreds of civilians, UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said in a statement. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not immediately respond to comment.

"Taken alongside the horrific level of child deaths in North Gaza from other attacks, these most recent events combine to write yet another dark chapter in one of the darkest periods of this terrible war," Russell said.

The nearly month-long Israeli military operation in Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun has compounded the dire conditions for residents in northern Gaza.

In a separate incident on Nov. 2, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported an attack on the Sheikh Radwan health care center in northwestern Gaza, where a polio vaccination campaign had recently resumed.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at least six people, including four children, were injured in the strike.

"This attack, during a humanitarian pause, jeopardizes the sanctity of health protection for children and may deter parents from bringing their children for vaccination,” he said in a statement.

The IDF later issued a statement acknowledging reports of civilian injuries at the clinic but stated that "an initial review determined that the IDF did not strike in the area at the specified time."

Israeli forces have repeatedly raided hospitals in Gaza over the course of the war, saying Hamas uses them for militant purposes, allegations denied by Palestinian health officials.

Munir al-Boursh, director-general of the Gaza Health Ministry, told The Associated Press that a quadcopter struck the clinic just a few minutes after a United Nations delegation left the facility.

"The 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 Rosalia Bollen, a spokesperson for UNICEF.

"Today’s attack occurred while the humanitarian pause was still in effect, despite assurances given that the pause would be respected from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m."

A scaled-down campaign to administer a second dose of the polio vaccine began on Nov. 2 in parts of northern Gaza. It had been postponed from Oct. 23 due to lack of access, Israeli bombings and mass evacuation orders, and the lack of assurances for humanitarian pauses, a U.N. statement said.

The administration of the first dose was carried out in September across the Gaza Strip, including areas of northern Gaza that are now completely sealed off.

Health officials said the campaign's first round and the administration of the second dose across central and southern Gaza were successful.

The final phase of the vaccination had 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 target is now unlikely due to access constraints."

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

The campaign was launched after the first polio case was reported in Gaza in 25 years — a 10-month-old boy, now paralyzed in the leg. The WHO said the presence of a paralysis case indicates there could be hundreds more who have been infected but aren’t showing symptoms.