The war in Gaza stops for a polio crisis breather

If only the war in Gaza would stop because of the death of 40,000 people, 17,000 of them Hamas fighters according to Israel. But there is no sign of that. The fighting will come to a halt, or an agreed halt, tomorrow, to allow the World Health Authority to enter Gaza and start the massive task of vaccinating 640,000 children against polio. They will have three days, an almost impossible task. It is a tragic and bitter irony that the first evidence of a child polio victim in 25 years should come in a war where thousands of homes have been obliterated by artillery and rocket fire. What other diseases are lurking in Gaza to create more suffering for the Palestinian people? It's time surely to bring this terrible conflict to an end. It has become now a battle of wills between Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, whose political survival rests on his winning the war, and Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader. Neither are going to compromise. They will fight to the bitter end, whether polio spreads or not, whether malnutrition spreads or not, or whether the whole Gaza Strip is destroyed. Amidst this Armageddon, good luck to the WHO doctors and nurses who will have the gargantuan challenge of preventing polio from spreading to all Palestinian children.