The World Health Organization (WHO) said Israel has agreed to implement a series of “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza to vaccinate children against polio.
Senior WHO official Rik Peeperkorn said the campaign, which will begin on Sunday, aims to vaccinate some 640,000 children in Gaza.
It will be rolled out in three distinct phases across the central, southern and northern parts of the region. In each stage, the battle will be suspended for three consecutive days between 06:00 and 15:00 local time.
Days earlier, U.N. officials said a 10-month-old baby was partially paralyzed by Gaza’s first case of polio in 25 years.
Some 1.26 million doses of the new oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) have arrived in Gaza, with another 400,000 doses due to arrive soon.
Vaccinations will be carried out by United Nations staff and other local health workers. More than 2,000 health and community outreach workers have been trained to administer the vaccine.
United Nations spokesperson in Gaza Louise Watridge called for a ceasefire so that the vaccination program can proceed safely.
“We cannot vaccinate children under a sky full of bombs and attacks, we cannot vaccinate children running for their lives,” she told Radio 4’s Today program on Friday.
“Any military action would impact our ability to deliver vaccinations to children while we are trying to carry out our vaccination campaign,” she explained.
Ms Wateridge said children will receive two doses of the oral vaccine this week and will need another dose afterward.
The World Health Organization aims to achieve 90% vaccine coverage across Gaza, which is needed to stop the spread of the virus within Gaza.
Agreement has been reached for an additional fourth day of vaccination and a humanitarian pause if that level of vaccination is needed.
Poliovirus is highly contagious and is most commonly spread through sewage and contaminated water.
It can cause disfigurement and paralysis and can be fatal. It mainly affects children under the age of five.
The World Health Organization says immunization rates in Gaza and the occupied West Bank are among their best before the conflict. Polio vaccine coverage is expected to reach 99% by 2022, the latest figures show, despite falling to 89% last year.
The Israeli military said in July it had begun vaccinating its soldiers against the disease.
“We are ready to work with international organizations to ensure the security of this campaign and provide services and protection for the more than 650,000 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip,” Hamas official Bassem Naeem told Reuters.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the series of three-day ceasefires “is not a ceasefire.”
James Kariuki, Britain’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said he “strongly” welcomes the vaccination program.
“We now need to see this implemented and these pauses need to be long enough to achieve the 90% coverage required. When the campaign begins, thousands of vulnerable and unaccompanied children gather at vaccination sites, They all must be protected,” he added.
Professor Hagai Levin, spokesman for the Hostage Families Forum, urged health workers to ensure those still held in captivity participate in vaccination campaigns.
Israel launched military operations in Gaza on October 7 after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.
More than 40,530 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
