Israeli military stops aid convoy for 8 hours, UN agency says

The United Nations agency in charge of aid for displaced Palestinians said the Israeli military stopped a convoy for more than eight hours on Monday, despite it coordinating with the troops.

The agency’s head Philippe Lazzarini said the staffers who were held had been trying to work on a polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza and Gaza City.

“The convoy was stopped at gun point just after the Wadi Gaza checkpoint with threats to detain U.N. staff,” he wrote on the social platform X. “Heavy damage was caused by bulldozers to the U.N. armored vehicles.”

He said the staff and the convoy later returned to a U.N. base but it was unclear if a polio vaccination campaign would take place Tuesday in northern Gaza.

“U.N. Staff must be allowed to undertake their duties in safety + be protected at all times in accordance with international humanitarian law," he wrote. “Gaza is no different.”

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment.

The vaccination drive, launched after doctors discovered the first polio case in the Palestinian enclave in 25 years, aims to vaccinate 640,000 children during a war that has destroyed the health care system.