Fighting rages in Gaza as Palestinians hope for vaccination pause

Palestinians in Gaza are waiting to see if there would be a pause in fighting to allow a polio vaccination campaign to begin, as the conflict raged across the besieged enclave, killing at least 20 people.

The United Nations (UN) is preparing to vaccinate an estimated 640,000 children in Gaza, where the World Health Organization confirmed on August 23 that at least one baby has been paralysed by the type 2 poliovirus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.

The UN, which called for a humanitarian truce earlier this month, hopes to begin the vaccination campaign on September 1, said Juliette Touma, communications director of UNRWA, the UN Palestinian refugee agency.

The World Health Organization named the baby as Abdul-Rahman Abu Al-Jidyan. He will turn one year old on September 1.

At Nasser Hospital, in the southern city of Khan Younis, Umm Eliane Baker fears her 19-month-old daughter may be vulnerable to polio due to ill health brought on by malnutrition.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week denied media reports Israel was preparing for a generalised humanitarian truce, saying that a more limited plan had been presented.

"These are not pauses in the fighting to administer polio vaccines but only the allocation of certain places in the Gaza Strip," he said in a statement.

Senior Hamas official Izzat El-Reshiq reiterated the group's support for the UN and international organisations' initiative for an urgent humanitarian truce across the enclave to allow the polio vaccination campaign.

He described Netanyahu's statement as an attempt to thwart the process by refusing the UN call.