Harshad Patel
In September, Israel agreed to implement a series of humanitarian pauses in its fighting with Gaza to facilitate a polio vaccination campaign for young children in the region. According to officials from the United Nations and Israel, the pauses will begin on September 1 and will occur in three phases, each lasting three days.
The World Health Organization (WHO) representative for the West Bank and Gaza, Rik Peeperkorn, confirmed that the pauses will first be in central Gaza, followed by south Gaza and north Gaza.
The Israeli government has confirmed that polio vaccinations will commence on September 1, with each phase of the campaign expected to take approximately seven hours. During these pauses, vaccines will be allowed to enter Gaza and be distributed.
However, details on how the distribution will be organized are still pending, as the Israeli agency responsible for overseeing aid into Gaza, COGAT, has yet to provide more information.
Hamas has expressed support for the vaccination campaign and has committed to cooperating with international organizations to ensure its success. This initiative comes in response to the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years.
With vaccination coverage having fallen to just over 80% due to ongoing conflict, the WHO emphasizes the need to reach more than 90% coverage to control the outbreak effectively.
The vaccination effort aims to immunize around 640,000 children under ten years old with two doses each. Over 1.2 million doses of the vaccine and 500 vaccine carriers have already been delivered to Gaza.
The WHO, alongside the Palestinian Ministry of Health, UNICEF, and other partners, will oversee the campaign. The vaccination campaign will include two rounds of doses with a four-week gap between them.
The polio outbreak in Gaza highlights the severe humanitarian challenges faced by the region, where many residents are struggling with shortages of essential supplies and have been displaced due to ongoing conflict.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have discussed the urgency of the vaccination effort, with the US playing a key role in coordinating the details of the campaign. The effort underscores the critical need for a temporary ceasefire, or “polio pause,” to prevent the disease from spreading further.
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