Israel, Hamas agree on humanitarian pause in Gaza for polio vaccination

Israel's military and Palestinian militant group Hamas have agreed to three separate, zoned three-day pauses in fighting in Gaza to allow for the first round of vaccination of 640,000 children against polio, a senior WHO official said on Thursday, Report informs via Reuters.

The vaccination campaign is due to start on Sunday, with the pauses scheduled to take place between 6 am and 3 pm (0300-1200 GMT), said Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization's senior official for the Palestinian territories.

He said the campaign would start in central Gaza with three consecutive daily pauses in fighting, then move to southern Gaza, where there would be another three-day pause, followed by northern Gaza. Peeperkorn added there was an agreement to extend the pause in each zone to a fourth day if needed.

"From our experience, we know an additional day or two is very often needed to achieve sufficient coverage," Mike Ryan, WHO emergencies director, told the UN Security Council on Thursday during a meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.