An official from her health ministry Hamas said polio vaccinations had begun in the Gaza Strip today, with a humanitarian organization stressing that the vaccination campaign would continue on a larger scale from tomorrow.

On Thursday, Mr World Health Organization (WHO) announced that Israel had agreed to a series of “humanitarian ceasefires”, each lasting three days, in the central, southern and northern Gaza Strip, in order to start a campaign to vaccinate 640,000 children against polio from Sunday.

Due to damaged roads and displaced populations, the United Nations has indicated that an extra day may be needed for vaccinations in each area, and the agreement provides that humanitarian ceasefires – which are expected to take place every day from early morning until early evening – then extend. According to the UN, “at least 90% coverage is needed in each phase of the campaign to stop the epidemic.”

“Teams from the Ministry of Health, the UNRWA and others started the polio vaccination campaign today, Saturday,” said Dr. Musa Abed, head of first aid services at the Hamas government’s health ministry.

A member of a humanitarian organization told AFP that the health ministry had started administering the first vaccines today, but that the vaccination campaign would take place on a larger scale on Sunday.

On August 23, the WHO confirmed that at least one infant was paralyzed after contracting polio. This was the first case in the Gaza Strip in 25 years.

The UN announced that it has distributed about 1.2 million doses of the nOPV2 vaccine. The second dose of the vaccine should be given four weeks after the first.

Parents told AFP they would take their children to be vaccinated, particularly for fear of epidemics in the Palestinian enclave of 2.4 million people, almost all of whom have been displaced since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.