The Israeli military and Palestinian militant group Hamas have agreed to three separate zoned three-day pauses in fighting in Gaza to allow for the vaccination of some 640,000 children against polio, a senior WHO official has said.
The vaccination campaign is due to start on Sunday, said Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization's senior official for the region.
He said the agreement was for the pauses to take place between 6am (4am Irish time) and 3pm (1pm Irish time).
He said the campaign would start in central Gaza with a three-day pause in fighting, then move to southern Gaza, where there would be another three-day pause, followed by northern Gaza.
Mr Peeperkorn added that there was an agreement to extend the humanitarian pause in each zone to a fourth day if needed.
The WHO confirmed on 23 August that at least one baby has been paralyzed by the type-2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
"We are ready to cooperate with international organizations to secure this campaign, serving and protecting more than 650,000 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip," Hamas official Basem Naim said.
The United States and European Union have both voiced concern over polio in Gaza, after the first case there in 25 years was confirmed this month in an unvaccinated ten-month-old baby.
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UN agencies have said they plan to provide oral vaccines against type-2 poliovirus (cVDPV2) to more than 640,000 children in the territory.
The Israeli military's humanitarian unit (COGAT) said yesterday that the vaccination campaign would be conducted in coordination with the Israeli military "as part of the routine humanitarian pauses that will allow the population to reach the medical centers where the vaccinations will be administered."
Islamic Jihad commander killed in West Bank
The planned pauses in fighting in Gaza come as Israeli troops killed a local commander of the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad movement in the West Bank and four other militants in a gunbattle during one of the largest assaults in the Israeli-occupied territory for months.
The Israeli military said it killed Muhhamad Jabber, known as Abu Shujaa, the head of a network of fighters in the adjacent Nur Shams refugee camp, during a "significant exchange of fire" around a mosque in the city of Tulkarm in which four other Palestinian fighters were also killed.
The Tulkarm division of Islamic Jihad's armed wing confirmed his death, which brought the total number of Palestinians killed during the past two days to 17, and said fighters had attacked Israeli forces near the Abu Ubaida mosque.
The operation began in the early hours of yesterday, with hundreds of Israeli troops backed by helicopters, drones and armoured personnel carriers raiding the flashpoint cities of Tulkarm, Jenin and areas in the Jordan Valley.
There was also a complete network outage at Jawwal, one of the two main telecommunications companies in the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank, according to the Reuters witness.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin has expressed concern at the increase in military operations in the territory.
"The real concern now is that we are beginning to witness an extension of that war into the West Bank, maybe waged differently, but essentially it will be the Palestinian population on the ground, women and children again, who will bear the brunt of such an assault."
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, he said that it is beyond comprehension why Israel would seek to militarily escalate the situation when de-escalation is urgently needed.
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In Jenin earlier, Israeli bulldozers edged along empty, rubbish-strewn streets as the sound of drones pierced the sky.
The troops searched ambulances on the streets and in front of Jenin's main hospital, having blocked off access to it yesterday to prevent fighters from seeking refuge there.
Columns of Israeli armoured vehicles backed by troops and warplanes were sent in before soldiers encircled refugee camps in Tubas and Tulkarm, as well as Jenin, and exchanged fire with Palestinian militants.
The army said it killed five militants in Tulkarm during the latest operations in the West Bank, bringing the overall toll to 14 dead.
"Following exchanges of fire, the forces eliminated five terrorists who had hidden inside a mosque" in Tulkarm, the military said in a statement.
Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad confirmed the death of Muhammad Jabber, also known as Abu Shujaa, its commander in the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm.
The violence has caused significant destruction, especially in Tulkarm, whose governor described the raids as "unprecedented" and a "dangerous signal".
AFPTV footage showed bulldozers ripping up paving from streets in the city as a precaution against concealed explosives. Authorities reported widespread damage to infrastructure, including to water and sewage networks.
The Palestinian health ministry said 12 Palestinians were killed on the first day of the operation.
Witnesses said the Israeli forces had withdrawn from Al-Farra refugee camp in Tubas where several Palestinians were killed yesterday.
An AFP photographer said clashes were still taking place in Jenin, where a drone was seen flying overhead.
Another AFP journalist said Israeli soldiers were still operating in Tulkarm.
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The Palestinian Prisoners' Club said at least 45 people had been arrested since the start of the Israeli operation in the northern West Bank.
UN calls for ceasefire
The United Nations has called for an "immediate cessation of these operations".
UN chief Antonio Guterres condemned the use of air strikes on civilian targets and "the loss of lives, including of children".
"These dangerous developments are fueling an already explosive situation in the occupied West Bank and further undermining the Palestinian Authority," he said in a statement.
Mr Guterres said Israel's launch of large scale military operations was "deeply concerning" and called for an immediate halt.
Civilian suffering in Gaza continues
Violence also raged in Gaza, where the Israeli military this morning said it "eliminated dozens" of militants during the past day in close-quarters combat and air strikes.
The army said one of those killed in the Khan Younis area was a militant who took part in the 7 October attack.
The war in Gaza erupted after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on 7 October, resulting in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also seized 251 people, 103 of whom are still captive in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
"The space that people have been confined to is so minimal. There are tanks in areas that used to be designated as safe areas."@UNWateridge explains that, while people in #Gaza keep fleeing carrying what they can & mostly moving by foot, there is nowhere safe in the #GazaStrip pic.twitter.com/I7lNbdkxnh
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) August 27, 2024
Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,602 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
The war has devastated Gaza and triggered a humanitarian crisis.
The United Nations said it was continuing to deliver humanitarian assistance despite the upheaval to civilians and aid teams caused by repeated Israeli evacuation orders and military operations.
