GAZA/CAIRO: The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday announced that 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 children against polio.
According to media reports, senior World Health Organisation (WHO) official Rik Peeperkorn said that 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, Reuters reports.
The vaccination campaign is due to start on Sunday, said Rik Peeperkorn, adding the agreement was for the pauses to take place between 6am and 3pm (0300-1200 GMT).
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. Peeperkorn added that there was an agreement to extend the humanitarian pause in each zone to a fourth day if needed.
Hamas welcomes UN request for humanitarian pause for polio vaccination
Hamas welcomes a UN request for a humanitarian pause in the fighting in Gaza to implement a polio vaccination campaign, Hamas official Basem Naim has told Reuters, adding that the group is ready to cooperate with international organisations.
“We are ready to cooperate with international organizations to secure this campaign, serving and protecting more than 650,000 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip,” Naim said.
A senior World Health Organization official has said the body has “a preliminary commitment for area specific humanitarian pauses” in fighting in the Gaza Strip to allow for a polio vaccination campaign to be carried out, Reuters reports.
EU urges ‘immediate’ Gaza truce for polio vaccination
Earlier, the European Union has called for “immediate” humanitarian pauses to allow the polio vaccination of all children in the Gaza Strip, which last month recorded its first case of the disease in 25 years, AFP reports.
The World Health Organisation and Unicef are planning two vaccination drives across the territory in the coming weeks, providing oral vaccine against type 2 poliovirus (cVDPV2) to more than 640,000 children.
“Commitment to the humanitarian pauses by all parties will be crucial to allow the successful and timely implementation of these urgent campaigns,” the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said on behalf of the 27-country bloc in a statement.
“An epidemic among a population already weakened by over 10 months of fighting and displacement, malnourishment, lack of basic health services, and deplorable sanitary conditions, as well as further spread internationally, must be avoided,” he said.
Palestinians suffering from lack of water, hygiene kits: MSF
Meanwhile, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is distributing emergency sanitation units in the Gaza Strip amid a deteriorating situation for the approximately 90 per cent of the enclave’s population that is forcibly displaced due to Israeli attacks, Al Jazeera reports.
“We live a very difficult life like the rest of the displaced. There’s a lack of water, bathrooms, difficulty getting food and other necessities,” said Shahd Abu Samra, a young displaced woman from north Gaza.
“There’s a lack of hygiene kits, making them difficult to find. When available, they are very expensive.”
