WHO announces preliminary agreement on humanitarian blockade to vaccinate Gaza children against polio

After the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the first case of polio in Gaza, its representative for the Palestinian territories, Rik Peeperkorn, announced this Thursday that there would be a “humanitarian pause” in the Strip to be able to carry out a vaccination campaign against the poliovirus in the middle of the war.

“We have a preliminary agreement for a humanitarian pause in specific areas during the vaccination campaign,” Peeperkorn said in an online press conference. “We call on all parties to stop fighting during the humanitarian pause so that children and families can have safe access to vaccines,” which will be imposed for three days in each area.

The first phase of the operation is scheduled to begin on Sunday, September 1, in the central region of Gaza, where most of the Strip’s population that has been displaced from other places is currently crowded. Peeperkorn explained that the central region will be followed by the southern region and then the northern region – the northern region, which has been most devastated by the Israeli attack. The breaks in Gaza will last for eight hours, from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., for three consecutive days.

“Based on our experience around the world, three days may not be enough,” Peeperkorn said, adding that period could be extended by a day or two if necessary.

According to the WHO representative, the campaign will mobilize more than 2,000 health and community workers, with 392 fixed posts across Gaza, to which it will add 300 mobile posts. The goal is to vaccinate more than 640,000 children under the age of 10, who are most vulnerable to the disease.

At the moment, neither the Israeli government nor the army have confirmed their commitment to the humanitarian pause. Meanwhile, the Palestinian group Hamas, whose fighters are clashing with Israeli troops in various parts of the Strip, has welcomed the announcement. “We call on the international community to force Israel to comply with its obligations under international law as an occupying force,” it said in a statement collected by Agencia EFE.

Today the European Union called for an “urgent humanitarian halt” to enable the vaccination of all children in Gaza, a territory where no case of polio had been recorded in the past 25 years.