Three separate pauses in hostilities announced for polio vaccination campaign in Gaza as Israel and Hamas agree to terms.

Extract from ABC News

9 minutes ago

Around 640,000 Palestinian children will be vaccinated against polio during planned pauses in fighting between Israel and Hamas. (Reuters: Ramadan Abed)

In short:

The Israeli military and Hamas have agreed to three separate three-day halts in fighting in the Gaza Strip so thousands of children can be vaccinated against polio. 

The virus was detected in the territory earlier this month for the first time in 25 years, with a 10-month-old baby paralysed.

What's next?

The vaccination campaign and pauses in fighting will start in central Gaza, followed by the south then the north.

Link copied

The Israeli military and Palestinian militant group 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, a senior WHO official said on Thursday.

The vaccination campaign is due to start on Sunday, said Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization's senior official for the Palestinian territories. 

He said the agreement was for the pauses to take place between 6am and 3pm local time.

UN aid in Gaza halted

Photo shows Two women wearing hijabs in conversation at a table in a tent. One holds a baby with a small girl at her side

United Nations humanitarian aid operations in Gaza grind to a halt after Israel issued new evacuation orders for Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, according to a senior UN official.

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. 

Mr Peeperkorn added that there was an agreement to extend the humanitarian pause in each zone to a fourth day if needed.

The WHO confirmed on August 23 that at least one baby has been paralysed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years. 

The UN Security Council will meet later on Thursday on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

"We are ready to cooperate with international organisations to secure this campaign, serving and protecting more than 650,000 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip," Hamas official Basem Naim told Reuters.

Perth doctor Mohammed Mustafa on working as a medic in Gaza (ABC News Breakfast)

The Israeli military's humanitarian unit (COGAT) said on Wednesday that the vaccination campaign would be conducted in coordination with the Israeli military "as part of the routine humanitarian pauses that will allow the population to reach the medical centres where the vaccinations will be administered."

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on October 7 when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's subsequent invasion of the Palestinian territory has since killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, while also displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million.

Reuters