Gaza's health ministry says a campaign to vaccinate the territory's children against polio has been halted because of Israel’s ongoing blockade of humanitarian supplies to the strip.
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00:00It's been 50 days since Israel blocked all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza.
00:07A move Israel said was designed to pressure Hamas into releasing the remaining 59 hostages
00:13it still holds, 24 of them believed to be alive.
00:17But as with many of the decisions taken during the course of this 18-month long war,
00:22it's the civilian population bearing the brunt and being forced to go without.
00:27One of the most concerning developments is news from local health authorities
00:30that a vaccination campaign for children against polio has had to be halted.
00:35600,000 children potentially now at risk because those supplies are not getting through.
00:41Polio is largely eradicated around the world but it has reappeared in Gaza
00:46as a result of the destruction of water and sanitation facilities.
00:51Now in the past when there have been vaccination campaigns,
00:54temporary truces have been organised to allow parents to get their kids to clinics for their shots.
01:00But that happened in far different times to what Gaza is finding itself in right now,
01:05not least because they were periods when humanitarian aid was still entering the strip.
01:10The UN's Palestinian aid agency UNRWA is ringing the alarm bells about the humanitarian blockade once more.
01:16Its chief, Philippe Lazzarini, taking to social media to label the situation
01:20collective punishment of the Palestinian population,
01:23a phrase which has very particular meaning when talking about allegations of war crimes.
01:28He's added that it's time for the international community to follow up its words demanding Israel lift the blockade with action
01:35and that humanitarian aid is being used as a bargaining chip and a weapon of war.
01:40For his part, Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz says the blockade doesn't breach international law.
01:46In response to a post from US Senator Bernie Sanders labelling it a war crime,
01:51Mr Katz said that plenty of aid was delivered during the ceasefire which began in late January.
01:57And he says if the need arises for more to be sent in,
02:01Israel will do so as long as it can bypass Hamas in the process.
02:06Many if not all humanitarian organisations would say that need has been present for many weeks now.
02:12But Israel is not yielding to any of their demands,
02:16nor is it laying off its intense bombardment of the Strip,
02:20with Palestinians reporting some of the most significant strikes in recent days.
02:25Among the targets, trucks and bulldozers,
02:28which local authorities say were being used in the clean-up and the retrieval of bodies,
02:32but which the IDF says have been used by Hamas.
02:36Local health authorities say more than 1,600 Palestinians have been killed
02:41since Israel resumed its bombardment of Gaza on the 18th of March.