TEL AVIV, August 25. /TASS/. Polio vaccines for vaccinating some 1.255 million people have been delivered to the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom crossing on August 25, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said.

According to COGAT, the delivery was carried out jointly with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) "as part of the humanitarian effort." "International and local medical teams will inoculate children who have not been vaccinated against polio in various places in Gaza in the coming days," it said.

Palestine’s health ministry said on August 16 that the first polio case had been confirmed in the central Gaza Strip. According to the ministry, the first polio case was registered in the city of Deir al-Balah in a ten-month baby who had receives no vaccine dose. The diagnosis was confirmed in a laboratory in Amman.

On the same day, WHO and UNICEF issued a joint statement announcing a two-stage polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip in late August and September. "WHO and UNICEF request all parties to the conflict to implement humanitarian pauses in the Gaza Strip for seven days to allow for two rounds of vaccination campaigns to take place. These pauses in fighting would allow children and families to safely reach health facilities and community outreach workers to get to children who cannot access health facilities for polio vaccination. Without the humanitarian pauses, the delivery of the campaign will not be possible," said the document that was posted on UNICEF’s website.

Poliomyelitis commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus that mainly affects nerves in the spinal cord or brain stem.