The WHO said the larger official rollout of the vaccine, which aims to reach 640,000 children, will begin on Sunday.
Several children in Gaza have been vaccinated against polio, a day ahead of a large-scale campaign to inoculate children against the virus and a planned pause in fighting in the besieged territory, Gaza’s health ministry said.
Journalists from the Associated Press news agency saw about 10 infants receiving doses of the vaccine at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Saturday afternoon.
“I was terrified and waiting for the vaccine to come and everyone to get it,” said Amal Shaheen, whose daughter received a dose.
The WHO has confirmed that the wider official rollout of the vaccine will begin on Sunday.
The three-day vaccination campaign aims to reach some 640,000 Palestinian children and comes after the discovery this month of the first case of polio in 25 years in Gaza.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hani Mahmoud said the deployment was expected to begin in central Gaza on Sunday.
“The remaining days will be in Khan Younis and the last deployment will take place in the northern part of the Gaza Strip,” Mahmoud added.
Israel has agreed to suspend its military offensive in Gaza to allow health workers to administer vaccines, U.N. officials said.
Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the Palestinian territory, said on Thursday that the three pauses will take place from 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. (03:00 to 12:00 GMT) and will each last three days in different areas of Gaza, starting on Sunday. The pauses are not linked to ongoing ceasefire negotiations.
“These are very short breaks, from morning to mid-afternoon in each area. Given the logistical constraints for the movement of Gazans, it will not be easy for them to come and go safely,” Mukesh Kapila, a former WHO official, told Tel Aviv Tribune.
He added that Palestinian parents will be concerned about the safety of their children as Israeli attacks on health facilities continue.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has worsened since the Israeli offensive on the territory, which began after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7 that killed at least 1,139 people. The subsequent Israeli offensive has killed at least 40,691 people in Gaza.
On Saturday, the Palestinian Civil Defense Agency in Gaza said at least three people were killed and dozens injured in an Israeli attack near the Arab al-Ahli Hospital (Baptist Hospital).
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Mahmoud said that in a previous attack on the hospital, hundreds of people were killed.
“This is not the first time that we have seen health facilities directly and deliberately targeted by the Israeli army. This particular hospital was attacked in the first weeks of this war, and hundreds of people were killed while they were in the hospital courtyard,” he said.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have been trying for months to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza that would also free the remaining captives.
But negotiations have repeatedly failed, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promising “total victory” over Hamas and the Palestinian group demanding a lasting ceasefire and a complete Israeli withdrawal from the territory.
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