Palestinian Health Ministry Launches Vaccination Campaign for Children

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced Thursday the designation of specialised health centres across the besieged territory to accelerate a national vaccination programme targeting children under the age of three, a move health officials described as critical to protecting a generation of children growing up under siege and bombardment.

The ministry said the designated centres would focus on closing immunisation gaps that have widened dramatically since the outbreak of the Israeli military offensive in October 2023. Eighteen months of sustained bombardment, displacement, and the near-total collapse of Gaza's health infrastructure have left hundreds of thousands of children without access to routine vaccinations against polio, measles, hepatitis B, and other preventable diseases.

Health authorities warned that declining vaccination rates have created conditions for potential disease outbreaks that could compound the humanitarian catastrophe already unfolding in Gaza. The United Nations and World Health Organization have previously flagged the risk of epidemic-level disease transmission in a population concentrated in overcrowded displacement camps with severely limited access to clean water and sanitation.

The announcement comes as international health agencies continue to press for sustained, unimpeded access to deliver medical supplies into Gaza. Aid convoys have faced repeated obstruction, with vaccine cold chains disrupted by fuel shortages and the destruction of refrigeration facilities. The WHO has reported that a significant portion of the territory's primary healthcare network has been rendered non-functional.

Qatar has been among the most active states in the region in channelling medical and humanitarian assistance into Gaza throughout the conflict, coordinating aid deliveries in partnership with international organisations and leveraging its diplomatic role as a key mediator in ceasefire negotiations. Doha has consistently framed access to healthcare for Palestinian civilians, including children, as a non-negotiable element of any humanitarian framework.

The Gulf Cooperation Council has also collectively called for the full restoration of health services in Gaza and unimpeded humanitarian access, with Qatar and Kuwait at the forefront of funding emergency medical operations through UN agencies and the Red Crescent.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health did not release precise figures on how many children remain unvaccinated, citing the difficulty of conducting accurate population assessments under active hostilities. However, UNICEF estimates suggest that immunisation coverage for key childhood vaccines in Gaza has fallen to its lowest recorded levels since the authority began tracking the metric.

Officials from the ministry affirmed that the launch of dedicated vaccination centres represents an assertion of the Palestinian people's fundamental right to basic healthcare, regardless of the conditions imposed by the ongoing military campaign. They called on the international community to guarantee the protection of health facilities and to ensure the continuous flow of vaccines and medical supplies into the territory.