Israeli forces detained and attacked a UN convoy on its way to support the polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza this week, using tanks and bulldozers to terrorize the UN staff and firing their guns despite supposed agreements by Israeli forces that the polio campaign be safe from violence.
According to Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the UN had coordinated the convoy’s travel in detail with Israeli forces. Despite this, the Israeli military held the convoy for over eight hours at a checkpoint as it was on its way to northern Gaza. None of the 12 UN staff involved were killed during the incident, but they were forced to return to base and were unable to complete their mission.
According to UN secretary-general spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, Israeli soldiers pointed guns at staff while saying they wanted to detain two of them for questioning. Then, firing off their guns, they surrounded the convoy with tanks and bulldozers.
They then rammed the UN vehicles from the front and back, “compacting the convoy with UN staff inside,” Dujarric said. A bulldozer dropped debris on the lead vehicle in the convoy.
Staff were held at gunpoint and unable to leave; Israeli soldiers interrogated two of the workers and released them.
Lazzarini raised alarm on Monday that the incident made it unclear whether staff could continue the polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza the next day, as the agency said the campaign was moving into its “most complex phase.” The UNRWA reported on Wednesday that it has been able to continue the campaign in northern Gaza “against all challenges and thanks to the dedication of our health workers.”
“This significant incident is the latest in a series of violations against UN staff including shootings at convoys and arrests by the Israeli Armed Forces at checkpoints despite prior notification. UN Staff must be allowed to undertake their duties in safety and be protected at all times in accordance with international humanitarian law. Gaza is no different,” said Lazzarini.
The UNRWA has reported that, as of Sunday, humanitarian workers have been able to vaccinate over 446,000 children in central and southern Gaza out of a total of 640,000 children under 10 years old in Gaza who need the vaccine. Lazzarini reported on Tuesday that the UNRWA has vaccinated an additional 77,000 children in northern Gaza.
Israel has supposedly agreed to brief pauses in deconflicted sites to allow the polio vaccine to be distributed, as experts warned that a polio epidemic could spread across the territory to Israel and elsewhere if it wasn’t stopped. Last month, officials reported that a 10-month-old baby had paralysis from poliovirus, caused by Israel’s genocide and disease campaign in Gaza.
The attack on the convoy raises questions about whether or not Israel is truly respecting their own pledge of deconfliction, or an agreement to avoid attacking certain spots for humanitarian aid purposes. Other attacks also suggest that Israel may be violating its deconfliction pledge.
On Tuesday, Israel struck a food stand in northern Gaza located between three deconflicted polio vaccination centers, killing five Palestinians, according to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. The food stall was as little as tens of meters away from vaccination centers, the group said.
“We have also documented airstrikes in Southern Gaza that similarly undermine the crucial polio vaccination campaign,” Euro-Med Monitor said. “Additionally, Israel’s stopping and interrogating a UN mission yesterday indicate a clear tendency for the IDF to obstruct humanitarian and relief efforts.”
Israel has also directly turned deconflicted zones into combat zones. On Monday, Israel ordered a new evacuation order for four neighborhoods in northern Gaza that covered several polio vaccination sites, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for the occupied Palestinian territory reported.
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