UNITED NATIONS: The Israeli military and Hamas have agreed to observe three separates, zoned, three-day pauses in fighting in the Gaza Strip to facilitate the vaccination of approximately 640,000 children against polio, a senior WHO official said on Thursday.
The vaccination campaign is expected to begin on Sunday, said Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s senior official for the area.
He said that the campaign will start in central Gaza with a three-day pause in fighting, then move to southern Gaza, where there would be another three-day pause, followed by northern Gaza. Peeperkorn went on to say that humanitarian pause could be extended in each zone to a fourth day if required.
The WHO on August 23 confirmed that at least one baby has been paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the Palestinian territory in 25 years.
The Israeli military’s humanitarian unit (COGAT) on Wednesday said that the vaccination drive would be conducted in coordination with the Israeli military.
According to the WHO, the pause in fighting will allow the population to visit the medical centers to get their children vaccinated against polio virus.
Tension has been high in the occupied West Bank after a brutal Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 40,600 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since October 7 last year.
According to Palestinian statistics, at least 670 Palestinians have been killed, about 5,400 others wounded and over 10,300 arrested in the West Bank.
The International Court of Justice in a landmark opinion on July 19, declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and demanded evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
