According to the World Health Organization, the campaign will begin on Sunday and will aim to vaccinate some 640,000 children in Gaza.
Israel and Hamas have agreed to establish a series of three-day pauses in fighting to allow a campaign to be carried out polio vaccination throughout the Gaza Strip.
The vaccination campaign will focus on children after a Gaza baby was left dead last week paralyzed by type 2 polio virusaccording to the WHO. It is the first case of its kind in Gaza in 25 years.
The first round of vaccinations will begin in central Gaza on Sunday, with breaks scheduled between 6:00 and 15:00 local time (5:00 – 14:00 CET). The campaign will then move to southern Gaza for another three-day break, before heading north to Gaza.
Rik Peeperkorn, senior official of the World Health Organization (WHO) said the breaks could be extended to a fourth day if necessary. He added that a second round of vaccinations would have to take place four weeks later of the first.
At a UN Security Council meeting on Thursday, Mike Ryan, WHO’s emergencies director, said: “At least 90% coverage is needed in each round of the campaign to stop the outbreak and prevent the international spread of polio.
It has been reported that Around 1.26 million doses of polio vaccine have already arrived in Gazaand another 400,000 more are expected to arrive.
Vaccinations will be carried out by UN staff in Gazaalong with local health workers, but the Israeli army’s humanitarian unit (COGAT) stated that the campaign would be carried out in coordination with the Israeli army.
Israeli campaign in the West Bank continues
The Israel’s large-scale military operation in the West Bank has reached its third day, and the Israeli army claims to have attacked a “terrorist cell” in the city of Jenin.
Israeli troops also claim that A local commander of the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad movement was killed during a “major exchange of fire” in the city of Tulkarm.. Four other Palestinian fighters were also killed.
Israel says the raids in the northern West Bank – in which at least 19 people, almost all of them militants, have been killed since late Tuesday – aim to prevent attacks against Israelis.
The Palestinians consider them an extension of the war in Gaza and an attempt to perpetuate the military dominance that Israel has exercised over the territory for decades.
Israeli missile hits aid convoy
And israeli missile overtook a convoy carrying medical supplies and fuel to an Emirati hospital in the Gaza Stripkilling several people from a local transportation company, the American group Near East Refugee Aid reported on Friday. Israel claimed without evidence that it opened fire after gunmen seized the convoy.
Thursday’s attack hit the first car in the convoy on the Salah al-Din road in the Gaza Strip. killing several people employed by a transportation company that the aid group was using to bring supplies to the Emirates Red Crescent Hospital in Rafah, said Sandra Rasheed, Anera’s director for the Palestinian territories.
The convoy, coordinated by Anera and approved by Israeli authorities, included an Anera employee who was unharmed, Rasheed said in a statement.
The event occurs while The United States criticizes Israel’s attacks on United Nations vehicles and calls for an end to attacks and threatening rhetoric against the UN and humanitarian organizations.
ADVERTISINGAt a UN Security Council meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza on Thursday, US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood highlighted the Israeli army’s repeated shooting at a clearly marked vehicle of the UN food agency, that was hit by at least 10 bullets when he was heading to an Israeli military checkpoint at the central bridge in Wadi Gaza. The vehicle had received multiple authorizations from the Israeli authorities.
