Israel’s military and Palestinian militant group Hamas have agreed to pause fighting in three separate, zoned three-day instances in the Gaza Strip to allow about 640,000 children to get vaccinated against polio, according to an official with the World Health Organization (WHO).
Vaccinations are scheduled to begin Sunday, said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO’s senior official for Palestinian territories. Both sides have agreed to stop fighting between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m. (0300-1200 GMT), Bloomberg reported.
The vaccination campaign is expected to pause fighting for three days in central Gaza and then southern Gaza before making its way to northern Gaza.
The agreement allowed for a fourth day of paused fighting in each zone if needed, Peeperkorn said.
The WHO confirmed on Aug. 23 that the type 2 polio virus had paralyzed at least one baby, marking the first such case in the territory in 25 years. The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to meet on Thursday to discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
“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,” Hamas official Basem Naim told Reuters.
The Israeli military’s humanitarian unit (COGAT) said on Wednesday that the vaccination campaign would be coordinated with the Israeli military “as part of the routine humanitarian pauses that will allow the population to reach the medical centers where the vaccinations will be administered.”
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