Israel, UN agree to Gaza pauses for polio vaccinations

Aid workers unload polio vaccine for Gaza

(Image credit: Eyad Baba / AFP via Getty Images)

published August 30, 2024

What happened

Israel has agreed to a series of staggered "humanitarian pauses" in Gaza to allow United Nations workers to administer polio vaccines to about 640,000 Palestinian children 9 and under, World Health Organization (WHO) official Rik Peeperkorn said yesterday. The first three-day pause in fighting is scheduled to begin this weekend in central Gaza.

Gaza's first case of polio in 25 years was confirmed last week in a 10-month-old boy who is now partially paralyzed. The infant "was born during wartime and never vaccinated," WHO Deputy Director Michael Ryan said Thursday. Poliovirus was discovered in Gaza wastewater in July. Israel's military said that month it had started vaccinating its soldiers against polio, the BBC said. The Israeli government initially balked at pausing the fighting to allow vaccinating Gaza's children, The New York Times said, but U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasized during a visit there last week that "without the vaccinations, the poliovirus now spreading in Gaza could expand throughout the region, including to Israel itself."

"I'm not going to say this is the ideal way forward, but this is a workable way forward," Peeperkorn said. "Not doing anything would be really bad." Hamas official Basem Naim said the militant group is "ready to cooperate with international organizations to secure this campaign." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said "this is not a cease-fire."

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Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.