TNA Staff
The New Arab / January 18, 2026
Children under the age of three in Gaza will start receiving crucial vaccination doses as the second round of the immunisation campaign kicks off.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip has launched the second round of a vaccination campaign for children under the age of three who have been impacted by Israel’s ongoing war and blockade.
The vaccination campaign is being carried out in partnership with UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, with support from UNICEF and the World Health Organisation (WHO), the ministry said on Sunday.
The ministry added that the campaign is designed to provide these services to children across the enclave, especially those living in areas sheltering the displaced.
Starting on Sunday, the campaign is expected to last 10 days and to be implemented by 170 vaccination teams across 129 medical centres, amid security concerns due to the Israeli military’s near-daily violations of the ceasefire, which took effect in October.
Ayman Abu Rahma, director of the Preventive Medicine Department in the ministry, told The New Arab’s Arabic-language site, Al-Araby al-Jadeed, that the vaccination campaign is targeting Palestinian children who have missed one or more basic vaccine doses, especially those who were born during Israel’s deadly military campaign in Gaza, or a few months before it.
Abu Rahma explained: “The repeated displacement of hundreds of thousands of families from the north of the Strip to its south, and then their partial return, created double challenges to children’s access to vaccines, whether due to the distance from health centres or the absence of these centres altogether in many areas of displacement,” meaning that scores of children have not been able to receive mandatory vaccinations.
He added: “The national immunisation programme protects children from 12 to 13 serious vaccine-preventable diseases, including diseases that could pose a direct threat to children’s lives.”
The WHO’s office in the Palestinian territories said in a social media post on X that the campaign is aimed at “strengthening protection against vaccine-preventable diseases” following disruption to health services as a result of Israel’s war.
The war in the Palestinian enclave plunged the healthcare system into a crisis, as the Israeli army deliberately struck and besieged major hospitals across the enclave and targeted healthcare workers.
The war on Gaza severely disrupted often life-saving operations and medical treatment, routine medical procedures, and mandatory vaccinations.
Additionally, Israel’s siege has prohibited the entry of medical supplies and medicine, leaving those carrying out medical procedures with sparse and damaged equipment.
Despite the implementation of a ceasefire in October last year, which stipulates the increased entry of humanitarian relief, adequate medical equipment and medicine are still hard to come by in Gaza.
This second round of the catch-up vaccination campaign follows the first round in November last year, also in partnership with the UN agencies. Children received vaccinations against rubella, mumps, measles, polio, among other diseases. A third round is also expected to take place.
