CAIRO (AP) — Palestinian officials say an Israeli drone struck a clinic in northern Gaza where children they were vaccinated against polio injured six people, including four children. The Israeli military has denied responsibility.

The alleged attack took place on Saturday in northern Gaza, which was surrounded by Israeli forces and largely isolated in the last year. Israel carried out another offensive there, in recent weeks, it has killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands.

The conflicting accounts could not be resolved. Israeli forces they repeatedly raided the hospitals in Gaza throughout the war, saying Hamas was using them for militant purposes, allegations denied by Palestinian health officials.

Dr. Munir al-Boursh, director general of Gaza’s Ministry of Health, told The Associated Press that a quadcopter struck the Sheikh Radwan clinic in Gaza City early Saturday afternoon, just minutes after a United Nations delegation left the facility.

The World Health Organization and the UN children’s agency known as UNICEF, which jointly runs the polio vaccination campaign, expressed concern over the reported strike.

“The 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 UNICEF spokesperson Rosalia Bollen.

“Today’s attack took place while the humanitarian pause was still in place, despite assurances that the pause would be observed from 6:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.”

Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, said that “contrary to claims, an initial assessment determined that (the Israeli military) did not strike the area at the specified time.”

A scaled-down campaign to administer a second dose of the polio vaccine began on Saturday in parts of northern Gaza. It has been postponed since October 23 due to a lack of access, Israeli shelling and mass evacuation orders, and a lack of assurances for humanitarian breaks, a UN statement said.

The first dose was administered in September in the Gaza Strip, including the areas of northern Gaza that are now completely cut off. Health officials said the first round of the campaign and the administration of the second dose in central and southern Gaza were successful.

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

The final phase of the polio vaccination campaign aimed to reach about 119,000 children in the north with a second dose of oral polio vaccine, the agencies said, but “achieving this goal is unlikely due to access constraints.”

They say 90% of children in each community must be vaccinated to prevent the spread of the disease.

The campaign was launched after the first case of poliomyelitis was reported in Gaza in 25 years – a 10-month-old boy, now paralyzed in the leg. The World Health Organization said the presence of one case of paralysis indicates there could be hundreds of people infected but not showing symptoms.

The war began on October 7, 2023, when militants led by Hamas swept into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping another 250. Israel’s offensive has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, who did not say how many were combatants, but say more than half were women and children.

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