Displaced infant Abdel-Rahman Abu El-Jedian, who suffers from polio, sleeps at a makeshift tent camp in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Tuesday. Abdel Kareem Hana/Associated Press

Israel has agreed to a temporary pause of some military operations in the Gaza Strip to enable a polio vaccination campaign there, a senior State Department official said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that Israel had not agreed to “pauses in the fighting in order to administer polio vaccines,” but rather “the allocation of certain places in the Gaza Strip” for unstated purposes, an arrangement it said had been approved by the security cabinet. The wording appeared designed to avoid indicating it had approved a humanitarian pause in the fighting in the absence of a cease-fire deal opposed by some members of Netanyahu’s coalition.

The State Department official said that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during a meeting with Netanyahu in Israel last week, had made a “major push” to make arrangements for the safe implementation of a vaccination campaign after international health officials confirmed a case of the polio virus in Gaza, where vaccinations and other health care have been severely disrupted since the war between Israel and Hamas began in early October.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity while the details of the program, including the duration and locations of individual pauses – are being worked out.

Word of the planned campaign came as the World Food Program said Wednesday it has temporarily suspended movement of its staff in Gaza “until further notice” after a clearly marked WFP vehicle came under fire Tuesday evening. The shooting took place “a few meters” from an Israel Defense Forces checkpoint at the Wadi Gaza bridge in the central part of the enclave, WFP said.

“Despite being clearly marked and receiving multiple clearances by Israeli authorities to approach, the vehicle was directly struck by gunfire as it was moving towards an [IDF] checkpoint,” the WFP statement said. “It sustained at least ten bullets: five on the driver’s side, two on the passenger side and three on other parts of the vehicle. None of the employees onboard were physically harmed.”

Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, said the vehicle was shot at by the Israel Defense Forces. Dujarric said Wednesday that the United Nations had lodged a formal complaint with Israeli authorities, but so far has not received a response. The targeted vehicle, he said, was part of a convoy of at least three, all with clear WFP markings.

“We have no way to assess the mindset of those who are shooting at us,” Dujarric said. “We do know that the movement of this particular convoy was coordinated with the Israeli authorities. Whether the information wasn’t passed down, whether it was deliberate, whether there was another reason, those are explanations we would like to get.”

Cindy McCain, the head of WFP, said the shooting was “totally unacceptable … We have repeatedly asked for a functioning deconfliction system in Gaza, and yet the current arrangements have failed.”

Israel – which has accused UNRWA, the main U.N. aid agency in Gaza, of Hamas sympathies – has said it implemented stricter deconfliction procedures for humanitarian vehicles traveling in Gaza after what it said was a mistaken attack in April on a marked World Central Kitchen vehicle. Seven WCK workers were killed in the attack.

In an email, an IDF spokesperson said Tuesday’s incident was under review. “A report was received regarding a UN vehicle that was damaged while driving along the humanitarian corridor,” they said, adding that the “IDF sees great importance in the humanitarian effort and the protection of humanitarian workers.”

The IDF said Sunday that polio vaccines for more than 1 million people have been delivered to Gaza, brought in specially refrigerated trucks in coordination with the United Nations. The World Health Organization and UNICEF, both U.N. agencies, have said they are organized to begin widespread vaccinations as soon as it is safe to do so.

The last case of polio was reported in Gaza a quarter century ago. Children are most at risk from the highly contagious virus.

Lior Soroka in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.