OCHA: UN agencies launch catch-up immunization campaign for children in Gaza amid humanitarian scale-up

05 November 2025

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that the UN and its partners are reaching more people every day with more supplies and services in all areas of the Gaza Strip, despite access restrictions, bureaucratic hurdles, congestion along transit routes and other impediments.

Today, UN agencies announced the launch of an integrated catch-up campaign for routine immunization, nutrition and growth monitoring – targeting 44,000 children who have been cut off from life-saving services due to the war. UNICEF, UNRWA, and the World Health Organization will carry out the campaign with partners, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health.

Children will receive three doses of the pentavalent, polio, rotavirus and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines, and two doses of the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine. The first of three planned rounds will start this Sunday and run for 10 days, with vaccinations taking place at nearly 150 health facilities and 10 mobile clinics across the Gaza Strip.

Teams have already brought into Gaza all vaccines, syringes, cold chain equipment and nutrition supplies necessary for this campaign. Over 450 health workers and support staff, as well as nearly 150 doctors, have been trained.

The agencies stressed that the campaign’s success depends on the full respect of the ceasefire so that families, health professionals and other humanitarian workers can reach vaccination sites freely and safely.

Across Gaza, the number of daily meals being served by 183 community kitchens topped 1.2 million on Monday, with the UN and its partners supporting that scale-up. Compared with late September, this represents an increase of more than 80 per cent. Families are also being reached with food parcels and other forms of food assistance.

Additionally, humanitarians are working to improve access to water supplies, with more than 40 partner organizations operating nearly 1,900 water points. On Monday, the UN and its partners distributed 4,400 hygiene kits, as well as 2,900 buckets and 3,700 jerrycans to people in need.

Yesterday, the UN and its partners distributed hundreds of tarpaulins and hundreds of tents across the Strip to displaced families in need of urgent shelter support. On Sunday and Monday, they provided hundreds of families with cash-voucher assistance for clothing ahead of the winter.

Meanwhile, the UN and its partners keep moving cargo into the Strip and collecting more supplies from Gaza’s crossings. On Monday, they were able to offload over 180 truckloads of critical supplies at the crossings, including more than 1,500 metric tons of food. Yesterday, teams collected about 120 truckloads inside Gaza, carrying more than 580 pallets of blankets, tents, winter clothes, hygiene items and more. They also collected over 150,000 litres of fuel and over 90 metric tons of animal fodder. These numbers are preliminary and exclude bilateral donations and the private sector.

OCHA stresses that while the humanitarian scale-up is well underway, much more is needed. Cargo collection is still limited because just two crossings are currently operational – and aid teams are only permitted to use narrow, congested roads to move supplies, with priority often given to the commercial sector.

Operations are also restricted by prohibitive registration requirements that effectively ban most NGOs from taking part in the scale-up. The UN and its partners are actively engaging with relevant authorities and all those with influence to secure the lifting of obstacles and restrictions so that humanitarians can truly leave no one behind.