WHO says 'humanitarian pauses' in Gaza will allow for polio vaccine drive to begin Sunday

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday that “humanitarian pauses” of the war in Gaza will allow for a polio vaccine drive to begin Sunday. 

The goal of the campaign is to vaccinate 640,000 children in the Gaza Strip amid the outbreak of the virus, according to Rik Peeperkorn, a WHO senior official for the Palestinian territories. 

The effort will kick off in central Gaza with a “humanitarian pause” that will go from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. for three days beginning Sunday. The initiative, which is being coordinated with Israeli authorities, will also take place in the southern and northern parts of the strip. 

“I am not going to say this is the ideal way forward. But this is a workable way forward. … We have to stop [polio] transmission in Gaza and outside Gaza,” Peeperkorn said. 

Each child will get two drops of the vaccine in two rounds. The second round would be administered four weeks following the first one. The push for vaccinating children in the war-torn enclave will be administered by the WHO, UNICEF, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees and the Palestinian Ministry of Health. 

The campaign comes just after Palestinian health officials reported the first case of polio in a 10-month-old unvaccinated child in Deir al-Balah. 

To stop the transmission of polio in Gaza, health workers need to vaccinate at least 90 percent of the kids there, according to the WHO. To do that, the initiative will feature more than 2,100 workers who will be working across Gaza. 

Polio is commonly spread through contaminated water, with the potential to cause paralysis and death.

Mediators — the U.S., Egypt and Qatar — have been working on a cease-fire deal between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, halting the conflict that has nearly reached 11 months.

The war broke out after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing nearly 1,200 Israelis and taking about 250 hostage. In retaliation, Israel’s military operation has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials.