Following weeks of increased alarm among public health officials over an outbreak of polio in Gaza, Israel and Hamas on Wednesday night agreed to a series of three-day pauses to allow for children to be vaccinated against the previously eradicated disease—but Israeli officials emphasized that the temporary halt in fighting was not a step toward a cease-fire.
The United Nations said Thursday that Israel had agreed to a staggered schedule of three-day pauses in military operations to allow health workers to spread out across the enclave and vaccinate 640,000 children under the age of 10.
The World Health Organization (WHO), the Gaza Health Ministry, and international human rights groups have called for a pause in fighting for weeks, following the detection of the polio virus in wastewater in July and the first confirmed case of the disease in a 10-month-old boy, whose left leg was paralyzed by the virus.
At least three other children have shown signs of paralysis this month, a worrying sign that the disease has spread further, said WHO on August 16.
Prior to Israel's bombardment of Gaza in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack last October, vaccination rates against polio in Gaza stood at about 99%, but the rate has fallen dangerously below 90% as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have attacked hospitals and blocked aid deliveries including clean water and medical supplies.
Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO's representative for the occupied Palestinian territories, toldThe New York Times it is "critical" for at least 90% of children in Gaza to be immunized against polio, which can invade the nervous system and which paralyzed 1,000 children worldwide every day before a global eradication initiative began in 1988.
"We have to stop this transmission in Gaza, and we have to avoid the transmission outside Gaza."
WHO arranged for the deliver of 1.26 million doses of vaccines, which arrived this week, but humanitarian workers have warned that Israel's continued bombings and evacuation orders have made it impossible for healthcare providers to actually inoculate children across the enclave.
"Diplomatic pressure is absolutely huge," Hassan el-Tayyab, legislative director for Middle East policy at the Friends Committee on National Legislation in the U.S., told Al Jazeera on Thursday. He added that U.S. President Joe Biden "should use the bully pulpit to call for the seven-day polio pause right now."
The Washington Postreported that, following outcry from advocacy groups and the U.N., U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a "major push" for a humanitarian pause in a meeting last week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The halts in fighting agreed to this week include a three-day pause that is set to begin on Sunday in central Gaza, followed by one in the south and a third in northern Gaza.
Peeperkorn said WHO expects "that all parties will stick to" an agreement that children will also be able to get booster vaccines four weeks after the first round.
He called the plan "a workable way forward" to avoid a larger outbreak.
"I'm not going to say this is the ideal way forward, but... not doing anything would be really bad," he said. "We have to stop this transmission in Gaza, and we have to avoid the transmission outside Gaza."
But Netanyahu made clear that the IDF has no plans to discontinue its assault on Gaza, which on Wednesday included a direct strike on a World Food Program vehicle that forced the WFP to suspend the movement of its workers in the enclave—part of Israel's "starvation strategy," according to one human rights' advocate.
"This is not a cease-fire," said Netanyahu's office in a statement.
Israel has also expanded its attacks on the occupied West Bank this week, killing at least 18 Palestinians over the last two days.
Maureen Clare Murphy, a senior editor at The Electronic Intifada, pointed out that "Israel is already claiming that it observes 'routine humanitarian pauses.'"
"So be prepared for more of the same," said Murphy.
Haya Shammala, whose family members are in Gaza, said the announcement of the "polio pause" felt "like a twisted dystopia."
After healthcare workers inoculate children across the enclave, she said, without a cease-fire, "these same children may very well be killed by Israeli airstrikes once the vaccinations are done."
