Israel Agrees to Humanitarian Pauses in Gaza Fighting to Allow Polio Vaccination Campaign

A polio vaccination campaign is underway in the Gaza Strip, targeting 640,000 children under the age of 10. The campaign, launched by UN agencies and local health officials, aims to immunize 90% of children in a short time frame. The rollout relies on temporary ceasefires between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters, with three separate three-day pauses in hostilities agreed upon by the Israeli military and Hamas.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has delivered 1.2 million doses of polio vaccine to Gaza, with vaccinations set to begin this weekend.

The Israeli government has agreed to a series of "humanitarian pauses" in the fighting in Gaza, allowing for a vaccination campaign to take place. The World Health Organization (WHO) has been working with Israel and Hamas to implement the pauses, which will allow health workers to vaccinate around 640,000 children under the age of 10 against polio. The vaccination campaign will be rolled out in three separate stages, starting in central Gaza and then moving to southern and northern Gaza. The pauses are expected to last for three days each, with the first one starting on Sunday. The WHO's representative in the Palestinian territories has described the agreement as a "workable way forward," but noted that it is not the ideal solution. The vaccination campaign is a response to a recent case of polio in Gaza, which was diagnosed in a 10-month-old baby. The WHO has stated that the mutated strain of the virus is highly infectious and can only be prevented by immunization. The Israeli military has also been vaccinating its troops on operations in Gaza as a precaution.