United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described pauses in fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza to allow children to be vaccinated against polio as a “rare ray of hope and humanity in the cascade of horror,” his spokesperson said, Reuters reports.

“If the parties can act to protect children from a deadly virus … surely they can and must act to protect children and all innocents from the horrors of war,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.