WHO announces polio pauses for lifesaving vaccination campaign

to get underway through a series of humanitarian pauses beginning on Sunday.

The Security Council held an emergency meeting in New York to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East, at the request of the United Kingdom. The acting head of the UN humanitarian wing OCHA, Joyce Msuya, told ambassadors that humanitarians are working "relentlessly" to stop the spread of polio through the enclave after the first case in 25 years was detected last week.

WHO's Mike Ryan told the Council that the polio campaign needed to "mark a significant change" to the whole process of aid delivery in Gaza, which must come at "much larger scale, at a much faster pace and without any hindrance."

In the meantime, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, posted on X yesterday:"A polio vaccination campaign in Gaza is planned to begin on 1 September. We welcome the commitment to humanitarian pauses in specific areas, and suspension of evacuation orders for the implementation of the campaign. But the only lasting medicine is peace. The only way to fully protect all the children of Gaza is a ceasefire."

The meeting comes on the heels of escalating settler violence in the West Bank, alongside an attack against a World Food Programme (WFP) team in Gaza, which prompted the agency to halt its operations in the war-torn enclave until further notice.

Meanwhile, the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) continues to coordinate with other UN agencies to deliver much-needed polio vaccines after the once-eradicated disease reappeared in Gaza.