Health official says polio vaccine campaign begins in Gaza

A health official says a polio vaccination campaign has begun in Gaza after the war-torn territory recorded its first case of the disease in a quarter of a century.

Local health officials along with the UN and NGOs “are starting today the polio vaccination campaign in the central region,” Moussa Abed, director of primary health care at Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, tells AFP.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to a series of three-day “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza to facilitate vaccinations, though officials had earlier said the campaign was expected to start on Sunday.

After beginning in central Gaza, vaccines are set to be administered in southern Gaza and then in northern Gaza.

The campaign, which involves two doses, aims to cover more than 640,000 children under 10.