In the past 48 hours, more than 50 children were reported killed in Jabalia, northern Gaza, according to the United Nations children’s agency.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said on Sunday that the strikes had targeted two residential buildings, housing hundreds of people over the past two days.

“This has already been a weekend of deadly attacks in northern Gaza,” Russell said in a statement.

Palestinian officials also reported that an Israeli drone strike hit a clinic in the area, where children were being vaccinated against polio, injuring six people, including four children.

The Israeli army has denied responsibility.

The alleged strike took place on Saturday in northern Gaza, an area surrounded by Israeli forces and largely isolated for a year. Israel has intensified its offensive in recent weeks, killing hundreds of people and displacing tens of thousands.

Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked Gaza hospitals during the war, claiming Hamas was using them for militant purposes, allegations denied by Palestinian health officials. Hamas fighters also operate in the north, battling Israeli forces.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, which are jointly leading the polio vaccination campaign, have expressed concern over the strike.

“This attack, which occurred during a humanitarian pause, jeopardizes the sanctity of protecting children’s health and could dissuade parents from taking their children for vaccination,” the WHO statement said.

“Reports of this attack are all the more worrying as the Sheikh Radwan clinic is one of the health points where parents can vaccinate their children,” said Rosalia Bollen, UNICEF spokesperson.

Israeli army spokesman Nadav Shoshani said that “contrary to claims, an initial review determined that (the Israeli army) did not strike in the area at the specified time.”

Eight killed in Khan Younis

In southern Gaza on Sunday, an Israeli strike hit a group of people gathered outside in an eastern neighborhood of Khan Younis, killing at least eight Palestinians, including four children and a woman, emergency services said of the Gaza Ministry of Health.

The city’s Nasser Hospital, which received most of the bodies, confirmed the figures.

15,000 children under 10 remain out of reach

A scaled-back campaign to administer a second dose of the polio vaccine began Saturday in parts of northern Gaza.

It was postponed until October 23 due to access problems, Israeli bombings, mass evacuation orders and the lack of guarantees of humanitarian breaks, according to a UN press release.

The administration of the first dose took place in September throughout the Gaza Strip, including areas of northern Gaza which are now completely sealed off.

Health officials said the first round of the campaign and the administration of the second dose in central and southern Gaza had been successful.

At least 100,000 people have been forced to evacuate areas of northern Gaza to Gaza City in recent weeks, but around 15,000 children under the age of 10 remain in northern towns, including Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, which are inaccessible. according to the UN.

Israeli army continues ground invasion of southern Lebanon

Meanwhile, the Israeli military released images on Sunday of what it says are ongoing operations in southern Lebanon.

The army continued its ground invasion into southern Lebanon, aiming, Israel said, to weaken the Hezbollah militant group, push it away from the border and end more than a year of Israeli fire. Hezbollah in northern Israel.

More than a million people fled the bombings, emptying much of the south.

Some experts say Israel could seek to create a depopulated buffer zone, a strategy it has already deployed along its border with Gaza.

Israel claims to have carried out ground raid in Syria

The Israeli army announced on Sunday that it had carried out a ground raid in Syria, capturing a Syrian citizen involved in Iranian networks. It was the first time in the current war that Israel announced the sending of troops to Syria.

The army did not specify where in Syria the raid took place or when.

Syria did not immediately confirm this announcement.

Israel has carried out airstrikes in Syria several times over the past year, targeting members of Lebanese Hezbollah and officials in Iran, a close ally of Hezbollah and Syria. But so far it has not made public any ground incursions into Syria.