Hello and welcome to News Hour. It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service

studios in Central London. I'm Tim Franks and we're beginning with Gaza with two very contrasting pictures of the

desperate humanitarian situation there contrasting because one is all about a new and

concerning development right now.

And one is about a highly ambitious and highly controversial plan

for how it might be turned around.

We'll hear about that in a moment.

First though, the World Health Organization as today said it's

had to postpone its mass polio vaccination campaign across much of northern Gaza.

Dr Rick Peppercorn is the World Health Organization representative in the West Bank and Gaza and he's currently in Dereal Bala in the centre of the strip.

Due to this escalating violence, the intense bombardments, mass displacement, but also a lack of assured

humanitarian pauses across most of Northern Gaza.

The Polio Technic Committee, they have been compelled to delay the third phase of the polio vaccination campaign.

And this final lab for Northern Gaza, we aim to vaccinate one hundred nineteen thousand children

across Northern Gaza.

I still have good hopes that we will be able to start a campaign over the next week.

We need to have access wherever children are. What kind of mechanism can be discussed but do we need to have access and we need to reach at least 90% of the children.

And how long have you got in a sense before the time runs out for you to administer this this last stage of the of the vaccination?

Does it have to be within a certain time period?

It has to.

So we have a small window between 28th of October and let's say the first week of November.

So we have to find three days there where we can do this campaign and complete it in the north.

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