United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called on all parties to the conflict in the Gaza Strip to ensure a humanitarian truce to allow vaccinations against the polio virus to be carried out in the Strip.

A horrific statement about Gaza: 10 children lose one or two legs every day

Arabs and the world

A horrific statement about Gaza: 10 children lose one or two legs every day

Guterres said on Friday that preventing and containing the spread of polio in Gaza will require massive, coordinated and urgent efforts.

Guterres, who was speaking to reporters at the United Nations, appealed to all parties to immediately provide concrete guarantees to implement humanitarian truces in order to conduct polio vaccination campaigns in Gaza.

The United Nations also called for a seven-day truce in Gaza to vaccinate 640,000 children against polio.

The World Health Organization reported that UN agencies want to introduce the oral polio vaccine type 2 to children under the age of 10 later this month.

She added, "In the absence of humanitarian truces, it will not be possible to implement the campaign."

Hamas supports the truce request

For his part, Izzat Al-Rishq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said in a statement on Friday that the movement supports the United Nations’ request for a seven-day humanitarian truce in order to vaccinate thousands of Palestinian children from quadriplegia.

Last July, the World Health Organization revealed that there is a high possibility of the spread of the polio virus throughout and around the Gaza Strip due to the dire health situation as well as the deterioration of the sewage system in the war-stricken Palestinian Strip.

Polio is a dangerous, highly contagious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis, and mainly affects children under the age of five.