A number of UN Security Council members have stressed the need for pauses in fighting in the Gaza Strip in order to prevent the spread of polio in the enclave.
Those calls were expressed at an UNSC meeting on Thursday to discuss the situation in the Middle East.
International aid group Save the Children, which attended the meeting via video link, said medical activities are difficult in Gaza as deliveries of medicine are blocked at checkpoints. The NGO also said Gaza residents are reaching the limits of exhaustion because of repeated evacuation announcements.
The group said that polio, which was confirmed in Gaza this month for the first time in 25 years, is a threat to children wherever they live.
The NGO called for an immediate halt in fighting and expressed the need for vaccinations to prevent the spread of infection.
The UN is calling for a seven-day pause in fighting on two separate occasions to carry out large-scale vaccinations against polio. A number of countries, including Japan, voiced support at Thursday’s meeting.
In response, the Israeli ambassador to the UN said his country has sent more than two million polio vaccines to Gaza in cooperation with the World Health Organization and the UN Children’s Fund, or UNICEF.
He said vaccinations will start for children, but didn’t say whether Israel will agree to stop fighting.