FILE - Palestinians displaced by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip walk next a dark streak of sewage flowing into the streets of the southern town of Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, July 4, 2024. Health authorities and aid agencies are racing to avert an outbreak of polio in the Gaza Strip after the virus was detected in the territory's wastewater and three cases with a suspected polio symptom have been reported. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) – The Palestinian health ministry said it recorded the first case of polio in an unvaccinated 10-month old-child in the Gaza city of Deir al-Balah. It’s the first case in years in the coastal enclave engulfed in the Israel-Hamas war.
After discovering the child’s symptoms, tests were conducted in Jordan’s capital of Amman and the case was confirmed to be polio, said the ministry.
The World Health Organization didn’t immediately respond to requests to confirm the case.
The U.N. health and children’s agencies are calling for seven-day pauses in the war starting at the end of August to vaccinate 640,000 Palestinian children against polio following the discovery of its virus in wastewater in two major cities last month.
