Conflict bars Gaza children from start of school year: UN

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) — Children in Gaza, suffering the brunt of the humanitarian crisis, are missing classes at what would be the school year’s beginning, a UN spokesman said on Monday.
“After 11 months of hostilities, more than 600,000 students are being deprived of access to formal education for another year,” said Stephane Dujarric, chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
He said the UN relief agency for Palestinians, known as UNRWA, reports no official schooling is available in any of its 200 schools, with many serving as shelters for displaced Palestinians. The agency’s teams still provide recreational activities and psychosocial support in some of its schools.
“Children in Gaza continue to suffer the worst effects of the humanitarian crisis there, including the risk of disease outbreaks,” Dujarric said. “The UN and its partners continue our efforts to protect children against the polio virus, with the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reporting that partners concluded the second phase of the vaccination campaign yesterday (Sunday) in southern Gaza.”
He said that during the second phase of the vaccination campaign, more than 256,000 children in Khan Younis and Rafah were reached over four days in southern Gaza.
Dujarric said the initial round of the three-phase oral-dose campaign is almost 70 percent complete, with more than 446,000 children vaccinated out of the 640,000 targeted during the first round of vaccinations, with the second round expected to start in four weeks.
With the last phase of the initial round in the three-phase campaign set to begin in northern Gaza on Tuesday, when asked at a regular briefing if it would be fair to say the humanitarians were on track to meet the goal of vaccinating at least 90 percent of children under 10, he replied, “I think it would be a fair assessment. Obviously, we will have to reserve judgment on the campaign as a whole.”
However, the spokesman had earlier pointed out a threat for humanitarians administering the vaccinations.
“A new evacuation order issued for parts of the north includes areas where local pauses had been agreed for polio vaccination,” he said.
Dujarric said the world body’s humanitarian partners reported their initial assessments, which show that about 5,000 displaced people sheltering in seven collective centers, primarily schools, are among those affected by the evacuation order.
OCHA warns that repeated evacuation orders are deepening the humanitarian crisis for hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza. More than 55 evacuation orders remain in effect, covering up to 86 percent of the Gaza Strip.
“These directives — coupled with active hostilities, attacks on aid convoys, the destruction of key roads, the presence of unexploded ordnance, and a lack of public order and safety — are impeding aid operations in Gaza,” the office said. “Access delays and denials also continue to significantly constrain humanitarian access.”
OCHA said the number of humanitarian missions and movements that Israeli authorities denied access in Gaza nearly doubled in August compared to July, with 105 missions and movements denied last month versus 53 the previous month. ■