Gaza - The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that it aims to vaccinate more than 40,000 children against various diseases in Gaza, as it takes advantage of the recent ceasefire.

The WHO and its partners already vaccinated over 10,000 children under the age of three in the first eight days of an initial phase of the campaign launched on November 9.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said phase one of the program has been extended until Saturday and hopes to protect children against measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B, tuberculosis, polio, rotavirus, and pneumonia.

Phases two and three of the campaign, which is being conducted in collaboration with UNICEF, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), and the health ministry in Gaza, are planned for December and January.

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The WHO chief said he was "encouraged to see that the ceasefire continues to hold, as it allows the WHO and its partners to intensify essential health services across Gaza and support the necessary re-equipment and reconstruction of its devastated health system."

The UN Security Council voted on Monday to endorse the plan of US President Donald Trump, which facilitated the establishment of a ceasefire on October 10 between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The truce has not stopped Israeli violence in the Palestinian territory, already devastated by two years of all-out siege. At least 28 Palestinians – including 17 children – have been killed and over 77 have been wounded in Israeli airstrikes targeting neighborhoods in Gaza City and Khan Younis since Wednesday morning, according to the Palestine Chronicle.

Israel has killed more than 69,500 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, according to the territory's health ministry.