Israel has agreed to a series of “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza to facilitate the vaccination of children against polio, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced. The vaccination campaign, set to begin on Sunday, aims to reach approximately 640,000 children across the Gaza Strip.
According to senior WHO official Rik Peeperkorn, the campaign will be conducted in three phases, targeting the central, southern, and northern regions of Gaza. During each phase, fighting will pause for three consecutive days between 06:00 and 15:00 local time to allow the vaccinations to be carried out safely.
The agreement follows recent reports of Gaza’s first polio case in 25 years, involving a 10-month-old baby who was partially paralysed by the virus. In response, around 1.26 million doses of the novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) have already been delivered to Gaza, with an additional 400,000 doses expected soon.
Over 2,000 health and community outreach workers have been trained to administer the vaccines, with the WHO aiming for a 90% vaccine coverage rate across the strip to halt the virus’s transmission. If necessary, an additional fourth day of vaccination and humanitarian pause may be implemented to reach the target.
Poliovirus, a highly infectious disease primarily affecting children under five, can spread through sewage and contaminated water. It can cause disfigurement, paralysis, and is potentially fatal. Despite optimal immunisation rates in Gaza and the West Bank before the conflict, polio vaccine coverage has recently declined from 99% in 2022 to 89% last year.
Hamas official Basem Naim expressed readiness to cooperate with international organisations to ensure the campaign’s success, serving and protecting over 650,000 Palestinian children in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clarified that the three-day pauses were “not a ceasefire.”
James Kariuki, the UK deputy permanent representative to the UN, welcomed the vaccination plan, stressing the need for the pauses to be long enough to achieve the 90% coverage required. He emphasised the importance of protecting all vulnerable children who gather at vaccination sites.
Prof Hagai Levine, a spokesman for the Hostages Families Forum, urged health workers to ensure that Israeli hostages held in Gaza are included in the vaccination efforts.
The humanitarian pauses come amid ongoing conflict in Gaza, which began after an unprecedented attack on southern Israel by Hamas on 7 October, resulting in the deaths of about 1,200 people and the capture of 251 hostages. Since then, more than 40,530 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
