Rhino: Catherine Russell, executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said on Thursday that humanitarian pauses have been agreed upon in Gaza to allow the completion of the second round of the polio vaccination campaign, which targets 590,000 children under 10 years of age and begins on October 14.
“Humanitarian pauses have been agreed in specific areas,” she said in a statement. It is very important that all parties respect these truces. Without them, it is impossible to vaccinate children,” she said in a statement.
The first round of the polio vaccination campaign, which began on September 1, has reached its goal of vaccinating 90 percent of children under the age of 10, the UN said. The campaign took place in phases over two weeks amid humanitarian truces between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed in August that an infant was partially paralyzed by poliovirus type 2, the first such case in the Gaza Strip in 25 years.
“UNICEF will be distributing vitamin A supplements to boost children’s immune systems,” Russell said. “Children in Gaza live in very poor conditions when it comes to hygiene and sanitation.