UNITED NATIONS: The Israeli military and Hamas have agreed to three separate, zoned three-day pauses in fighting in the Gaza Strip to allow for the vaccination of some 640,000 children against polio, a senior World Health Organisation (WHO) official said on Thursday.

The vaccination campaign is due to start on Sunday, said Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO’s senior official for the Palestinian territories. He said the agreement was for the pauses to take place between 6:00am and 3:00pm local time.

He said the campaign would 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 added that there was an agreement to extend the humanitarian pause in each zone to a fourth day if needed.

Campaign will start in central Gaza on Sept 1

The WHO confirmed on Aug 23 that at least one baby has been paralysed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.

The Israeli military’s humanitarian unit (COGAT) said on Wednesday that the vaccination campaign would be conducted in coordination with the Israeli military “as part of the routine humanitarian pauses that will allow the population to reach the medical centres where the vaccinations will be administered.”

“The way we discussed and agreed, the campaign will start on the first of September, in central Gaza, for three days, and there will be a humanitarian pause during the vaccination,” said Rik Peeperkorn, the agency’s representative for Palestinian territories.

The vaccination rollout will also cover southern and northern Gaza, which will each get their own three-day pauses, Peeperkorn told reporters, adding that Israel had agreed to allow an additional day if required.

Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday night the new measures were “not a ceasefire.” Hamas said it supports the “UN humanitarian truce.”

The United States and European Union have both voiced concern over polio in Gaza after the first case there in 25 years was confirmed this month in an unvaccinated 10-month-old baby.

UN agencies have said they plan to provide oral vaccines against type-2 poliovirus (cVDPV2) to more than 640,000 children in the territory.

Poliovirus is highly infectious and most often spread through sewage and contaminated water — an increasingly common problem in Gaza with much of the territory’s infrastructure destroyed by Israel in its aggression against Hamas.

The disease mainly affects children under the age of five. It can cause deformities and paralysis and is potentially fatal.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2024