Israel agrees ‘pauses’ in Gaza aggression to allow polio vaccination campaign

Gaza (Quds News Network)- Israel has agreed to “pauses” in its deadly aggression on the Gaza Strip in order to allow for a polio vaccination campaign in the enclave where a case of the debilitating disease has been recorded for the first time in 25 years.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said Thursday that they had managed to secure an agreement from Israel to allow a vaccination rollout to cover central, southern, and northern Gaza.

“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.

Some 1.26 million doses of the NoPV2 vaccine have already been delivered to Gaza ahead of the September 1 campaign to vaccinate more than 640,000 children against polio, according to the WHO official. Another 400,000 were still to arrive.

It will be rolled out in three separate stages, across the central, southern and northern parts of the strip. During each stage, the Israeli attacks will pause for three consecutive days between 06:00 and 15:00 local time.

There are fears that the virus could spread quickly due to poor sanitation conditions and overcrowding in Gaza’s camps, which are now sheltering hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

This comes days after UN officials said a 10-month-old baby had been partially paralysed after contracting Gaza’s first case of polio for 25 years.

Hamas official Basem Naim told the Reuters news agency: “We are ready to cooperate with international organisations to secure this campaign, serving and protecting more than 650,000 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the series of three-day pauses were “not a ceasefire”.

James Kariuki, UK deputy permanent representative to the UN, said he “strongly” welcomed the vaccination plan.

“We now need to see this in action and these pauses need to be long enough to deliver the 90% coverage required. When the campaign starts and thousands of vulnerable and unaccompanied children gather at vaccination sites, they must all be protected,” he added.