The third polio campaign has been postponed in northern Gaza, leaving thousands of children vulnerable

 The third phase of the United Nations’ polio vaccination campaign in Gaza has been postponed due to “escalating violence, intense bombardment, mass displacement orders, and lack of assured humanitarian pauses across most of northern Gaza,” the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday.

The immunization drive was due to kick off on Wednesday, WHO said, and was the final phase of an ongoing campaign that aims to vaccinate nearly 120,000 children across northern Gaza.

The postponement could “seriously jeopardize efforts to stop the transmission of the poliovirus in Gaza,” if “a significant number of children miss out on their second” dose of the vaccine, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Adele Khodr warned in a post on X.

“This could also lead to further spread of poliovirus in the Strip itself and neighboring countries, with the risk of more children being paralyzed,” she added.

Locals describe dire situation on the ground: Residents of northern Gaza are living under deteriorating conditions as Israel ramps up its military operation there, saying Hamas has been regrouping in the area. On Tuesday, the director of Gaza’s health ministry said medicine, medical supplies and food have not entered northern Gaza for 18 days and accused Israel’s military of preventing international aid convoys from reaching the area.

In a news briefing on Wednesday, Col. Elad Goren, the Israeli military’s head of the humanitarian-civil effort in the Gaza Strip, said that residents of Jabalya in northern Gaza, where the Israeli military is operating, “have enough assistance from previous months” and that 90% of the area’s population have evacuated.

CNN cannot verify that claim. Several residents of northern Gaza, including Jabalya, have told CNN they are trapped and under Israeli fire with no access to aid.