GAZA – Israel has agreed to a series of pauses in fighting in Gaza in September to allow young children in the enclave to be vaccinated for polio, according to United Nations and Israeli officials. The polio campaign, which will aim to vaccinate around 640,000 children across Gaza, comes after the highly infectious virus was found in sewage samples in the Strip in June.

Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) representative for the West Bank and Gaza, told a press briefing from a video link Thursday that the pause would start September 1 and will be split into three 3-day phases. “We have a preliminary commitment for area-specific humanitarian pauses during the campaign,” he said, adding that the pauses will roll out first in “central Gaza for three days, followed by south Gaza and then followed by north Gaza.”

The vaccination drive comes as aid agencies reported Israeli attacks on their convoys. One charity said an Israeli strike on a humanitarian vehicle in Gaza killed several employees of a transportation company. The Israeli military said it targeted “armed men” who had taken over the convoy.

The return of polio to Gaza is a measure of the destruction wrought by more than 10 months of Israeli bombardment. Polio vaccine coverage in the enclave was estimated at 99% in 2022, but had dropped to below 90% at the start of this year, according to WHO data. Peeperkorn warned that more than 90% coverage was needed to stop the outbreak.

The virus mostly affects children under five years old, and can cause irreversible paralysis and even death. It’s highly infectious and there is no cure; it can only be prevented by immunization, WHO says. More than 2,000 health workers have been recruited in Gaza to take part in the ambitious vaccination campaign. So far, 1.26 million doses of vaccines have been delivered to the Strip, with 400,000 more on their way.

An Israeli official confirmed to CNN that polio vaccinations will begin in Gaza on Sunday. Each phase of the vaccination campaign is expected to take around seven hours, and during those hours, the vaccines will be able enter the area on “pause” and be distributed. (CNN)…[+]