Israel, Hamas agree to pauses for polio vaccinations in Gaza

Israel and Hamas have agreed to halt hostilities in the Gaza Strip for a polio vaccination campaign led by the World Health Organization (WHO), a WHO official said on Thursday.

Rik Peeperkorn, head of the WHO office for the West Bank and Gaza, told reporters in a video briefing that the UN health agency, the Hamas Health Ministry and the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees, known as UNRWA, would launch the campaign on Sunday.

He said the first two rounds of the vaccines would be administered from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. local time in Gaza's central region for three days, followed by three days in the southern region and finally three days in the north. The pause in hostilities for each three-day campaign may be stretched to a fourth day if necessary.

The WHO official said 2,180 workers in 295 teams would administer the oral vaccines to 640,000 children under 10 years of age at 392 sites. The vaccine is to be delivered in two doses about four weeks apart.

Peeperkorn said if some children could not be brought into the planned 392 sites in hospitals and other medical points, "we will try to get to them."

Also in Gaza, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Israeli authorities announced that displaced people could return to specific areas in Deir al-Balah, the first time return to an evacuated area has been officially allowed.

The OCHA said the evacuation orders are also severely constraining aid efforts. Recently, they have displaced many humanitarian colleagues and lost access to warehouses, water wells, other critical facilities and humanitarian routes, it added.

"UN colleagues assessed the water, hygiene and sanitation conditions in two sites hosting over 1,200 families in Rafah," the office said. "People are struggling with drinking water as no trucking is currently available. They report skin diseases being the main morbidity among women and children, with no treatments available when they go to the medical points."

The OCHA also said sea water floods the tents of those living directly on the beach in Mawassi.

In the West Bank, the office said there are reports of displaced families, particularly in urban areas where Israeli forces have repurposed homes as military positions. In multiple locations, military bulldozers have heavily damaged infrastructure, and electricity and telecommunication outages continued.

"Military operations near hospitals also continue, effectively besieging these facilities and limiting the movement in and out, including that of medical staff," OCHA said.

The office said the UNRWA clinic in the Al Far'a refugee camp had to suspend operations on Wednesday, resuming on Thursday only when Israeli forces left the area. UN agencies warned of the risk of unexploded munition in some areas.

The Israeli military said it killed five more West Bank militants, including a local commander, as it pressed ahead on Thursday with its deadliest operation in the occupied territory since the start of the conflict.

Israel says the raids across the northern West Bank – which have killed a total of 16 people, nearly all militants, since late Tuesday – are aimed at preventing attacks. The Palestinians see them as a widening of the war in Gaza and an effort to perpetuate Israel’s decades-long military rule over the territory.

In the West Bank, the Islamic Jihad militant group confirmed that Mohammed Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, was killed during a raid in the city of Tulkarem. He became a hero for many Palestinians earlier in the year when he was reported killed in an Israeli operation, only to make a surprise appearance at the funeral of other militants, where he was hoisted onto the shoulders of a cheering crowd.

Israel said he was killed on Thursday along with four other militants in a shootout after the five had hidden inside a mosque. It said Abu Shujaa was linked to numerous attacks on Israelis, including a deadly shooting in June, and was planning more.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate cessation of Israel's operations in the West Bank, his spokesman said on Thursday.

The UN chief was deeply concerned by the latest developments in the occupied West Bank, including Israel's launch on Wednesday of large-scale military operations in Jenin, Tulkarm and Tubas governorates, involving the use of air strikes, which resulted in casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure, said Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman, at a daily briefing.

The secretary-general "strongly condemns the loss of lives, including of children," Dujarric said.

Guterres said these dangerous developments were fueling an already-explosive situation in the West Bank, further undermining the Palestinian Authority, and called for the immediate cessation of these operations, the spokesman noted.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 15 people were killed in the governorates of Jenin, Tulkarm and Tubas in less than two days, with many others injured.

(With input from agencies)