Israel has agreed to a series of humanitarian pauses in Gaza – to allow for the vaccination of children against polio.
The World Health Organization (WHO) which disclosed this said the campaign enable it vaccinate around 640,000 children across the Gaza strip effective from Sunday.
Senior W.H.O official, Rik Peeperkorn said the campaign would be rolled out in three separate stages, across the central, southern and northern parts of the strip.
During each stage, fighting is expected to cease for three consecutive days between 6 AM and 3 PM local time.
The agreement comes days after UN officials said a 10-month-old baby had been partially paralysed after contracting Gaza’s first case of polio for 25 years.
Around 1.26m doses of the novel oral polio vaccine type 2 are already in Gaza, with 400,000 additional doses set to arrive soon.
The vaccinations will be carried out by UN staff and other local health workers.
Over 2,000 health and community outreach personnel have been trained to administer the vaccine.