Polio vaccination centre in Gaza attacked despite 'pause', UN says

A polio vaccination centre and the car of a UN aid official involved in this weekend's vaccination campaign came under fire despite a promised "humanitarian pause" in Israeli bombardment, the UN has said.

- Julian Borger

Catherine Russell, the executive director of Unicef, said: "At least three children were reportedly injured by another attack in the proximity of a vaccination clinic in Sheikh Radwan, while a polio vaccination campaign was under way."

She said the personal car of a Unicef employee working on the polio vaccine campaign "came under fire by what we believe to be a quad-copter [drone]".

"The car was damaged. Fortunately, the staff member was not injured. But she has been left deeply shaken," Russell wrote. She added that in the previous 48 hours, more than 50 children had reportedly been killed in the Jabaliya refugee camp, a focus of Israeli military operations over the past month.

"The attacks on Jabaliya, the vaccination clinic and the Unicef staff member are yet further examples of the grave consequences of the indiscriminate strikes on civilians in the Gaza Strip," Russell said.