News - Middle East: The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has once again pleaded for a humanitarian pause in the besieged Gaza Strip for a mass polio vaccination campaign.  

In a Wednesday post on X, UNRWA said it cannot do its job “under a sky full of bombs and strikes.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently warned of a high risk of the polio virus spreading across the Israeli-bombarded Palestinian region due to the poor sanitary conditions. 

The WHO has said if the outbreak happens in Gaza, it may spill over internationally at a very high rate.

Some 1.2 million vaccines have arrived in Gaza. The UN has said it needs a weeklong pause to vaccinate all children. 

WHO is joined in the vaccination effort by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the UNRWA Relief and other partners. The aim is to vaccinate virtually 640,000 children under the age of 10 with two doses each.

The organizations have emphasized that a ceasefire — what they are calling a “polio pause” — is crucial.