One in every five children in Palestine’s Gaza has missed essential vaccinations over the past two years, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said on Friday, warning of mounting health risks in the war-ravaged enclave.
“Reports indicate that one in every five children in Gaza has missed their essential vaccines,” UNRWA said in a statement on X.
The announcement comes as the Ministry of Health, UNRWA, and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society — supported by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF — prepare to launch a large-scale vaccination drive on Sunday across 150 health centres throughout the territory.
According to the ministry, the campaign aims to reach about 44,000 children, providing life-saving vaccines and screening them for malnutrition.
Children make up 47 percent of Gaza’s population, or nearly 980,000 people, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
Gaza’s health system struggles to recover
UNRWA said the vaccination effort is part of broader attempts to restore essential healthcare after two years of conflict and blockade that devastated Gaza’s medical infrastructure and halted regular immunisation programs.
At the start of the war, the Health Ministry and UNRWA provided monthly immunisations, but supplies dwindled as restrictions tightened and medical imports were blocked.
Over the past two years, only two emergency polio campaigns were conducted — on September 1, 2024, and February 22, 2025.
The upcoming effort will deploy vaccines through 24 health centres and medical points across the strip as agencies work to rebuild the shattered public health network.
Israel continues to block aid
Since the October 10 ceasefire, Gaza’s health sector has struggled to recover amid severe shortages of medicines, medical supplies, and equipment.
Ismail al-Thawabteh, director of the Gaza government media office, told Anadolu that Israel continues to restrict the entry of medical goods, violating humanitarian provisions of the ceasefire.
Munir al-Barsh, director general of Gaza’s Health Ministry, said on Telegram that Israel allows only limited primary-care drugs while blocking critical medicines for malnutrition and surgical procedures.
Israel has maintained occupation of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing since May 2024, after destroying its facilities and halting movement through it — a situation that has deepened the humanitarian and medical crisis.
According to Gaza health authorities, Israeli attacks since October 2023 have killed nearly 69,000 people, mostly women and children, and wounded more than 170,000 others.
