The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday that the Israeli army and the Palestinian group Hamas have agreed to suspend fighting at three separate sites to vaccinate children against polio.
The sides are to cease fire between 6:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. The humanitarian pauses in each area will last three days and begin on September 1, senior WHO official in the Palestinian territories Rik Peeperkorn said.
He also added the campaign will begin in central Gaza with three consecutive daily breaks in the fighting, then move to southern Gaza for another three-day pause, and then to northern Gaza. Peeperkorn noted that there is an agreement to extend the pause in each zone to a fourth day if necessary. Mike Ryan, WHO’s emergency director, told the UN Security Council on Thursday at a meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza:
From our experience, we know an additional day or two is very often needed to achieve sufficient coverage.
A second round of vaccinations will be needed four weeks after the first round, Peeperkorn said.
Ryan also said:
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.
Hamas official Basem Naim told Reuters:
We are ready to co-operate with international organisations to secure this campaign, serving and protecting more than 650,000 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military’s humanitarian unit (COGAT) said on Wednesday that the vaccination campaign would be carried out in coordination with the Israeli military “as part of the usual humanitarian pauses that will allow the population to reach the medical centres where the vaccinations will be administered.”
Israel will allocate places for polio vaccinations
However, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied that Israel had allegedly agreed to a cessation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip. The prime minister’s office said in a statement:
Channel N13’s report that Israel has agreed to pauses in hostilities in the Gaza Strip is false. These are not pauses in hostilities for polio vaccination, but only the allocation of certain places (for this purpose) in the Gaza Strip.
The proposal to allocate locations for vaccination “was submitted to the security cabinet” and “received the support of the relevant experts,” the office clarified.
The first case of polio was reported in the Gaza Strip on August 16. The UN is making preparations at 11 health centres so that vaccination can be carried out there. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said the first round of vaccinations will begin on 31 August.
Meanwhile, former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis criticised the Israeli government’s actions, writing a post on X:
I see: Israel agrees to stop shooting while Palestinian kids are being vaccinated against polio before shooting/bombing them dead immediately afterwards. The Middle East’s “democracy” has discovered a new variety of “humanitarianism!”
