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of a mass campaign, and had inoculated about a quarter of children under 10. The campaign, which was hastened by the discovery of the first polio case in a Gazan baby last month, relies on daily eight-hour pauses in fighting between the Zionist entity and Hamas militants in specific areas of the besieged enclave.

Diplomatic efforts to secure a permanent ceasefire and release foreign and Zionist captives held in Gaza and return many Palestinians jailed by the Zionist entity have stalled, however. Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Zionist troops would remain in the Philadelphi corridor on the southern edge of Gaza, one of the main sticking points in reaching a deal to end the fighting and return hostages. Hamas, which wants an agreement to end the war and see Zionist forces out of all of the Gaza Strip, says such a condition, among some others, would prevent a deal.

The United Nations, in collaboration with the local health authorities, embarked on the third day of a complex campaign to vaccinate around 640,000 children in Gaza against polio. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described pauses in fighting to allow the vaccinations as a “rare ray of hope and humanity in the cascade of horror,” his spokesperson said on Tuesday. “If the parties can act to protect children from a deadly virus...surely they can and must act to protect children and all innocents from the horrors of war,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, told reporters in Geneva that it had vaccinated more than 161,000 children under the age of 10 in the central area in the first two days of its campaign, compared with a projection of around 150,000. “Up until now things are going well,” he said. “These humanitarian pauses, up until now they work. We still have 10 days to go.” He said that some children in southern Gaza were thought to be outside the agreed zone for the pauses and that negotiations continued in order to reach them. Palestinians say a key reason for the return of polio is the collapse of the health system and the destruction of most Gaza hospitals.

The Zionist campaign has so far killed at least 40,819 people in Gaza, mostly women and children. Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said remaining captives would return “inside coffins” if the Zionist entity maintains its military pressure on Gaza. In the north of the occupied West Bank, meanwhile, Zionist forces pressed on with raids that began nearly a week ago and that the Palestinian health ministry said has killed at least 27 people. – Agencies