WHO Secures Cease-Fires for Gaza Polio Vaccination

The World Health Organization said both the Israeli military and the Palestinian militant group Hamas have agreed to abide by three separate, short cease-fires in specific areas of the Gaza Strip to allow for a massive vaccination program to protect children from polio in the war-ravaged enclave.

"A two-round polio vaccination campaign will actually start on the 1st of September and we start in central Gaza for three days, followed by South Gaza and then followed by the north of Gaza."

The WHO official overseeing the Palestinian Territories said the campaign is due to start Sunday. Each pause in fighting will last three days, with hostilities halted between 6am and 3pm local time each day.

The campaign comes after the WHO last week confirmed at least one baby has been paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus.

The child, Abdul-Rahman, is just days away from his first birthday. He should be learning to walk.

It's the first such case in the territory in 25 years.

Poliomyelitis is a highly infectious virus primarily spread through the fecal-oral route. It can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis.

Cases of polio have declined by 99% worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and efforts continue to eradicate it completely.

The U.N. says it is now preparing to vaccinate an estimated 640,000 children in Gaza.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on October 7 when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's subsequent assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has since killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.