Israel, Hamas agree to pauses for Gaza polio vaccinations, UN agency says
Palestinian boy Abdul Rahman Abu Al-Jidyan, who is the first person to contract polio in Gaza in 25 years, is fanned by his sister at their tent, in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip Aug 28, 2024. (Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed)
The vaccination campaign is due to start on Sunday, with the pauses scheduled to take place between 3.00 and 12.00 GMT, said Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization's senior official for the Palestinian territories.
He said the campaign would start in central Gaza with three consecutive daily pauses in fighting, then move to southern Gaza, where there would be another three-day pause, followed by northern Gaza. Peeperkorn added there was an agreement to extend the pause in each zone to a fourth day if needed.
"From our experience, we know an additional day or two is very often needed to achieve sufficient coverage," Mike Ryan, WHO emergencies director, told the UN Security Council on Thursday during a meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
A second round of vaccination would be required four weeks after the first round, said Peeperkorn.
"At least 90 per cent of coverage is needed during each round of the campaign in order to stop the outbreak and prevent international spread of polio," Ryan said.
The WHO confirmed on Aug 23 that one baby has been paralysed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in Gaza in 25 years.
"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," Hamas official Basem Naim told Reuters.
The Israeli military's humanitarian unit (COGAT) said on Wednesday that the vaccination campaign would be conducted in coordination with the Israeli military "as part of the routine humanitarian pauses that will allow the population to reach the medical centres where the vaccinations will be administered."
EVACUATION ORDERS
Israel was continuing a "focused and intensive effort" to deliver aid to Gaza and coordinate the polio vaccination campaign with WHO and UN children's agency UNICEF, Oren Marmorstein, spokesperson for Israel's foreign affairs ministry, posted on X.
Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood said it was important that Israel facilitate access and "ensure periods of calm and refrain from military operations during vaccination campaign periods".Â
He added that the United States urged "Israel to avoid further evacuation orders during this period."
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct 7 when Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Wednesday said aid operations in Gaza were "heavily restricted by hostilities, insecurity, and mass evacuation orders affecting aid transport routes and facilities".
The evacuation orders issued on Sunday had "led to the largest relocation of UN staff since we were forced to leave northern Gaza in October 2023," Msuya said, affecting some 200 staff, more than a dozen guesthouses used by the UN and aid groups and four UN warehouses.
