Israel, Hamas agree to limited pauses in Gaza fighting to allow for polio vaccinations Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization's senior official for the Palestinian territories, said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to limited pauses in the fighting in Gaza to allow vaccinations against polio. Hamas said it is “ready to cooperate with international organisations to secure the campaign", according to a statement from Hamas’s political bureau. The urgent campaign comes after a 10-month-old Palestinian boy was partially paralyzed by a mutated strain of the virus, having missed the chance to be vaccinated because he was born just before the October 7 attacks by Hamas militants and Israel's ensuing offensive.