The Palestinian Ministry of Health recorded the first case of polio virus in the southern governorates, in the city of Deir al-Balah, for a child aged (10 months) who had not received any vaccination against polio. Doctors suspected the presence of symptoms consistent with polio, and after conducting the necessary tests in the Jordanian capital, Amman, the infection with the vaccine-derived polio virus strain was confirmed.

The ministry confirmed in a statement that it would implement a vaccination campaign in the coming days targeting children under the age of 10, as one million two hundred thousand doses of the type two polio vaccine were provided in coordination with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and efforts are ongoing to provide an additional 400,000 doses, according to the Palestinian News and Information Agency (Wafa).

The ministry emphasized that the continuation of the brutal Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip has resulted in a health disaster, as stated by international organizations. The shortage of basic hygiene needs, lack of sewage services, accumulation of waste in the streets and around the shelters for displaced persons, and the unavailability of safe drinking water have created a favorable environment for the outbreak and transmission of many epidemics, including waterborne diseases such as the vaccine-derived polio virus.

It renewed its appeal to the international community and international health organizations for urgent intervention to stop the barbaric Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip immediately, and to work on creating field conditions to save what can be saved and to provide healthcare services immediately to our people in the Gaza Strip.

It also issued an urgent call to all international organizations and bodies to take immediate action to rebuild safe drinking water systems, sewage systems, and to dispose of medical and solid waste, to work on supplying fuel for pumping clean fresh water, and to allow unconditional access for medical supplies, medications, and materials used for personal hygiene.

It stated that the government gives this issue the utmost priority and is mobilizing all its resources to protect our people and our children, who are our future, wherever they may be. It emphasized that its teams in the southern and northern governorates, in cooperation with all international institutions and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), have been working in recent weeks to develop a comprehensive plan to implement an extensive vaccination campaign against polio in the Gaza Strip.