Gaza/Geneva, 1 September 2024 (dpa/MIA) - Hundreds of thousands of children are to be vaccinated against polio in the embattled Gaza Strip from Sunday morning.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), hospitals, doctors' surgeries and mobile teams are to start immunizing 640,000 children against the virus responsible for polio within a few days. Four weeks must separate the two doses that give full immunization.

The aim is to reach more than 90% of children under the age of 10. To this end, there are to be temporary and localized pauses in the campaign.

The first vaccine doses were administered at a press conference organized by the health authority controlled by the Palestinian militant organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Saturday. The WHO called it an opening ceremony.

Recently, the first case of polio in 25 years was reported in the Palestinian territory.

Since the beginning of the war following the Hamas attack on the Israeli border area on October 7, 2023, many babies in the Gaza Strip have been unable to be vaccinated.

According to the WHO, the terrible hygienic conditions in the coastal strip, where many displaced people are forced to live in cramped conditions and clean water is scarce, could contribute to the rapid spread of the disease.

According to the WHO, the vaccination campaign is to begin in the central Gaza Strip. After three or possibly more days, the campaign will continue in the south before moving to the north of the coastal strip.

MIA file photo