WHO announces brief pauses in Gaza war to vaccinate children against polio

The World Health Organization has announced that there will be limited pauses in the Israeli war on Gaza to allow for polio vaccinations for hundreds of thousands of children after a baby contracted the first confirmed case in 25 years in the Palestinian territory.

Described as "humanitarian pauses" that will last three days in different areas of the war-ravaged territory, the vaccination campaign will start on Sunday in central Gaza, said Rik Peeperkorn, World Health Organization representative in the Palestinian territories.

That will be followed by another three-day pause in southern Gaza and then another in northern Gaza. He thinks they might need additional days to complete the vaccinations.

Peeperkorn said that they aim to vaccinate 640,000 children under 10 and that the campaign has been coordinated with Israeli authorities.

"I’m not going to say this is the ideal way forward. But this is a workable way forward," Peeperkorn said of the humanitarian pauses on Thursday.

Later he added, "It will happen and should happen because we have an agreement."

Humanitarian pauses

These humanitarian pauses are not a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that mediators US, Egypt and Qatar have long been seeking, including in talks that are ongoing this week.

An Israeli official said there is expected to be some sort of tactical pause to allow vaccinations to take place. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has not been finalised.

The Israeli army has previously announced limited pauses in limited areas to allow international humanitarian operations.