Israeli authorities have agreed to a series of “humanitarian ceasefires” of three days each in the central, southern and northern Gaza Strip in order to start a campaign to vaccinate children against polio from Sunday, an official said. of the World Health Organization.
“What we discussed and it was agreed is that the campaign will start on September 1 in the central Gaza Strip, it will last for three days and there will be a humanitarian pause” for several hours every day, said Rick Pieperkorn, the WHO representative in Gaza.
At the press conference given by Piperkorn, he said that the same is then planned to be done in the southern and northern parts of the enclave for the first of two phases of vaccination.
Because roads have been destroyed and the population has been displaced, UN agencies may need an extra day for each zone. The agreement provides that in this case the humanitarian pause will be extended.
The ceasefire in each zone will last from 6 am to 3 pm.
“There is an agreement and we hope that all sides will respect it. Otherwise, it will be impossible to carry out a normal vaccination campaign”, emphasized Piperkorn.
Israeli authorities contacted by AFP had no comment. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had stated last night that it would not be a question of a ceasefire” but of “the availability of certain areas” in the Gaza Strip for vaccination to take place.
Hamas, for its part, said it “supports” the “humanitarian truce” and is ready to cooperate with international organizations.
The UN had called for seven-day humanitarian pauses for each of the two phases of vaccination. The aim is to vaccinate 640,000 children under the age of 10.
The second dose of the vaccine will be given within the next four weeks after the first, Piperkorn explained.
On August 23, the WHO confirmed that at least one infant was paralyzed after contracting polio. This was the first case in the Gaza Strip in 25 years.
Bombings
Today Israeli forces continued to shell areas across the Gaza Strip in their war against Hamas-led militants. Palestinian medics said Israeli military strikes have killed at least 34 people so far.
A strike at a house in Gaza City killed eight Palestinians, including children, they said, while three others were killed when an Israeli rocket hit a motorcycle in Rafah, near the border with Egypt.
A neighbor of the bombed house in the Gaza Strip said they managed to lower a ladder into the building to rescue a family trapped inside, but were only able to retrieve a little girl.
Israel’s ensuing assault on the enclave has killed at least 40,600 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, and displaced almost the entire population of about 2.3 million, triggering a famine crisis and accusations of genocide before the International Hague Tribunal which Israel denies.
Relatives of hostages tried to enter Gaza
The families of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip staged a rally near the border today, demanding a deal to free them, and at one point attempted to cross into the enclave.
Relatives of some of the 107 hostages still held in Gaza, holding photos of their loved ones and wearing T-shirts splotched with red paint, gathered at Kibbutz Nirim in southern Israel, about 2 kilometers from the border. They began to shout messages of love and support through loudspeakers aimed at the Palestinian enclave.
So far, international efforts for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages have not borne fruit.
At some point today, a few dozen protesters broke away from the crowd and began running toward the Gaza border.
“We are coming to take them back to Israel where they belong, where they should be,” gasped Eyal Calderon, whose cousin, Ofer, is among the hostages.
Israeli police stopped the relatives before they could reach the border. The police even warned them that they would become easy targets for Palestinian militants if they stood in open spaces in the countryside.
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