More than 161,000 children under the age of 10 were vaccinated in the central region during the first two days of the campaign, compared to 150,000 children who were expected to be vaccinated, said Rick Peeperkorn, the organization’s representative in the occupied Palestinian territories.

"We have 10 days"

He added in a press conference on Tuesday, "so far things are going well.

He also stressed that "the humanitarian truces have been successful so far," adding that "we still have 10 days."

The vaccination campaign was launched on August 31 from Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, followed by Khan Yunis, then Gaza City, and then the northern Gaza Strip.

Vaccinating children in Gaza (archive - Reuters)

Vaccinating children in Gaza (archive - Reuters)

First case of polio

This came after the first case of polio appeared in Gaza in a ten-month-old child in Deir al-Balah, after the virus was detected in water samples collected at the end of June in Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah, after this virus had been absent from the Palestinian territories for 25 years.

This prompted health organizations and the United Nations to warn of the seriousness of the matter, calling for humanitarian truces in the Gaza Strip that would allow children to be vaccinated, and then for Israel to agree to a partial ceasefire for 3 days in each area targeted for vaccination.

While the United Nations sent 1.2 million doses, and vaccines in the form of oral drops, not injections, to the Strip, which has been experiencing dire humanitarian conditions and a stifling siege since the outbreak of the Israeli war on October 7, following the attack launched by Hamas on Israeli settlements and military bases in the Gaza Strip.