Israel agrees 'pauses' in Gaza assault to allow polio vaccination campaign

Israel has agreed to "pauses" in its assault on the Gaza Strip in order to allow for a polio vaccination campaign in the enclave.

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.

The UN launched the campaign to vaccinate around 640,000 children under the age of 10 in Gaza against polio, after a 10-month-old baby was paralysed by the type 2 poliovirus in the first confirmed case of polio in the enclave for 25 years.

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.

Aid workers had warned that without humanitarian pauses, the campaign would fail to reach enough children to stop the spread of the virus.

"We stress the critical importance for all parties to adhere to the commitments that have been made," Michael Ryan, WHO deputy director-general, told the UN Security Council.

"At least 90 percent of coverage is needed during each round of the campaign in order to stop the outbreak and prevent the international spread of polio."

He added that 1.26 million doses of the NoPV2 vaccine had been delivered in Gaza, while another 400,000 were still to arrive.

Forced displacement

Oren Marmorstein, Israel's foreign affairs spokesman, said on social media that the government was coordinating "a large-scale operation with WHO and UNICEF to vaccinate children in the Gaza Strip against polio".

Hamas also said it supports the "UN humanitarian truce".

The UN has warned that its ability to operate in the besieged Gaza Strip has been hindered by Israel’s recurring forced displacement orders that oblige Palestinians to flee to an ever-shrinking "humanitarian zone".

On Monday, UN aid operations in Gaza were halted after an Israeli order forcibly ejected Palestinians from Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, where the UN's operation centre is located.