The UN World Health Organisation on Thursday announced that there will be limited pauses in the ongoing Gaza war to make way for polio vaccinations of hundreds of thousands of children after a 10-month-old baby contracted the first confirmed case in 25 years in the region.
These pauses, described as "humanitarian pauses", will last for three days in different areas of the conflict-ridden territory, said Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organisation representative in the Palestinian territories.
Peeperkorn said that the polio vaccination campaign will begin in central Gaza from Sunday. The another three-day pause will take place in southern Gaza, followed by another one in northern Gaza.
The WHO representative said that authorities might need additional days to complete the vaccinations. He said that they aim to vaccinate 6,40,000 children under the age of ten, adding that the campaign has been coordinated with the Israeli authorities.
"I'm not going to say this is the ideal way forward. But this is a workable way forward,” Peeperkorn said, adding that, "It will happen and should happen because we have an agreement."
Notably, these humanitarian pauses are not a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, who have been fighting each other since the militant group launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
International mediators, the US, Egypt and Qatar have long been discussing ways to reach a ceasefire agreement, including in the talks that have been underway this week.
An Israeli official, meanwhile, said that there is expected to be some sort of tactical pause to allow vaccinations to take place. Previously, the Israeli Army has announced limited pauses in some areas to allow international humanitarian operations.
The announcement comes just a day after a 10-month-old Palestinian boy named Abdel-Rahman Abuel-Jedian, born during the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, became the first confirmed case of polio in the region in 25 years, WHO had said.
The infant was an active baby until one day he suddenly stopped crawling and his left leg was paralysed.
Notably, health officials in Gaza had been warning about the possibility of a polio outbreak due to the worsening humanitarian conditions caused by the conflict.
Unfortunately, Abdel-Rahman had missed his vaccinations as he was born just before the escalation of the war on Gaza in October last year. The violence had forced his family to flee the region immediately, disrupting essential health care services like vaccinations for newborns.
Polio is a highly contagious disease that can cause permanent paralysis, especially in children. While most people infected with polio are asymptomatic, those who do show symptoms can face irreversible damage.
The World Health Organisation has warned that for every case of paralysis, hundreds more may be infected without knowing it.
