Agreement reached for three-day pauses for Gaza polio vaccinations, WHO says

The Israeli military and Hamas have agreed to three separate, zoned, three-day pauses in fighting in the Gaza Strip to allow for the vaccination of some 640,000 children against polio, senior WHO official Rik Peeperkorn said on Thursday.

The vaccination campaign is due to start on Sunday and pauses will take place between 6 am and 3 pm local time.

He said the campaign would start in central Gaza with a three-day pause in fighting, then move to southern Gaza, where there would be another three-day pause, followed by northern Gaza, adding that there was an agreement to extend the humanitarian pause in each zone to a fourth day if needed.