Israel affirms taking a break for the polio vaccination campaign

Israel has consented to a series of "humanitarian pauses" in Gaza to facilitate a polio vaccination campaign for children, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The initiative aims to vaccinate approximately 640,000 children throughout the Gaza Strip, starting on Sunday, as stated by senior WHO official Rik Peeperkorn.

The vaccination effort will be executed in three stages, covering the central, southern, and northern regions of the strip.

During each stage, combat activities will halt for three consecutive days from 06:00 to 15:00 local time.

This agreement follows reports from UN officials indicating that a 10-month-old baby had suffered partial paralysis after contracting Gaza’s first polio case in 25 years.

Around 1.26 million doses of the novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) are already in Gaza, with an additional 400,000 doses expected to arrive soon.

The vaccination campaign will be managed by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in collaboration with the WHO, UNICEF, and UNRWA.

Over 2,000 health and community outreach workers have been trained to administer the vaccine.

The WHO aims to achieve 90% vaccine coverage across the Gaza Strip, which is necessary to halt the transmission of the virus.

An agreement is in place to add a fourth day of vaccination and humanitarian pause if required to reach this vaccination target.

Poliovirus is highly infectious, often spread through sewage and contaminated water, and can lead to disfigurement, paralysis, and even death, primarily affecting children under five.

Before the conflict, immunization rates in Gaza and the occupied West Bank were high, with 99% coverage in 2022. However, coverage had decreased to 89% by the latest reports.

The Israeli military began vaccinating its soldiers against polio in July.

Hamas official Basem Naim expressed readiness to cooperate with international organizations to support the campaign, aiming to protect over 650,000 children in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clarified that the three-day pauses are "not a ceasefire."

UK deputy permanent representative to the UN, James Kariuki, welcomed the vaccination plan but stressed the need for sufficient pause duration to ensure 90% coverage and safety for vulnerable children at vaccination sites.

Prof. Hagai Levine, spokesperson for the Hostages Families Forum, called on health workers to include those still held hostage in the vaccination campaign.

Since Hamas's unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, which resulted in approximately 1,200 deaths and 251 hostages, over 40,530 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.