Israel and Kazakhstan have agreed to a three-day ceasefire in three zones to vaccinate children against polio

The Israeli military and Hamas have agreed to divide the Gaza Strip into three zones and suspend fighting for three days each to allow for the first round of polio vaccinations for 640,000 children, a senior World Health Organization official said.

The WHO representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Gerard Pipper Cohen, told a news conference at UN headquarters in New York on Thursday that the vaccination campaign would begin on Sunday. The agreement calls for a three-day ceasefire in the central Gaza Strip, followed by a three-day ceasefire in the southern Gaza Strip and finally a three-day ceasefire in the northern Gaza Strip.

The ceasefire will operate from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. (11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Singapore time).

The parties also agreed that the ceasefire in each area could be extended by one day if necessary.

Pipekorn says a second round of polio vaccination is needed four weeks after the first round.

Who Emergencies Director Paul Ryan told the UN Security Council at a meeting on the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip that "from our experience, we know that it usually takes an additional day or two to achieve adequate coverage".

"At least 90 per cent coverage is needed for each round of vaccination to stop the outbreak and prevent the international spread of poliovirus," he said.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently said that the polio virus has spread in the Gaza Strip, children are at risk, the United Nations has prepared to vaccinate more than 640,000 children under the age of 10 in the Gaza Strip, WHO has approved the distribution of 1.6 million doses of polio vaccine.

Polio, commonly known as poliomyelitis, is an acute infectious disease caused by the poliovirus that mainly affects children under the age of five and can lead to paralysis or death in severe cases. There is no cure for the disease and vaccination is the most cost-effective way to prevent poliovirus.