Gaza - New York: Europe and the Arabs
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the number of Palestinian deaths in Gaza reaching 40,000, according to the Ministry of Health in the Strip, "represents a grim milestone for the world." He added that most of the dead are women and children and that this situation - which is unimaginable - is largely due to the repeated failure of the Israeli army to comply with the rules of war. According to the UN daily news bulletin, a copy of which we received this Friday morning
In a press statement, High Commissioner Volker Türk said that about 130 people have been killed every day in Gaza over the past ten months and that the extent of the Israeli army's destruction of homes, hospitals, schools and places of worship is extremely shocking.
The UN official stressed that international humanitarian law is very clear about the paramount importance of protecting civilians, civilian property and infrastructure. He said that his office has documented serious violations of international humanitarian law by both the Israeli army and Palestinian armed groups, including the armed wing of Hamas.
“As the world contemplates its inability to stop this carnage, I urge all parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire, lay down their weapons and stop the killing once and for all,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights added.

Volker Türk stressed the need to release hostages, free arbitrarily detained Palestinians and end the illegal Israeli occupation, stressing the importance of making the internationally agreed two-state solution a reality.

In the same context, the World Health Organization and UNICEF warned that the risk of polio spreading in Gaza remains high unless there is an urgent response, stressing the need to conduct at least two rounds of oral polio vaccine to stop transmission.

This comes after the detection - last month - of vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 in sewage samples in Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah.

Health authorities in Gaza reported three cases of paralysis in late July and the samples were sent to Jordan for testing. According to the World Health Organization, acute flaccid paralysis can have many causes, including polio.

The UN agency noted that Gaza had excellent polio vaccination coverage before the war, but months of fighting created the “perfect environment” for the weakened polio virus in the vaccine to mutate into a stronger version capable of causing paralysis among those who were not fully immunized.

The World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) expressed concern about any delays in the delivery of polio vaccine and vital cold chain equipment amid the ongoing heavy fighting and insecurity in the Strip.

The two organizations stressed the need for humanitarian pauses to vaccinate children to mitigate the risk of transmission. WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus has approved the release of 1.23 million doses of the new oral polio vaccine type 2 for use in Gaza in an effort to vaccinate more than 640,000 children under the age of 10.

The UN stressed the need to ensure safe and sustainable access and protect health workers to ensure the success of the mass vaccination campaign, noting that only 16 of 36 hospitals are “partially functioning” in Gaza.

The impact on the health system, insecurity, lack of access, population displacement and shortages of medical supplies have contributed to low immunization rates, the World Health Organization said.

With poor water quality and destroyed sanitation, the organization warned of increased risks of vaccine-preventable diseases.