The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that tests showed the presence of the virus causing polio in several samples of wastewater in the Strip, denouncing a “health disaster.”

The ministry said, “The results of tests conducted on sewage samples in coordination with UNICEF showed the presence of the virus that causes polio.”

Polio is a viral disease that is currently endemic in only two countries: Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The ministry added that this discovery “in the wastewater running between the tents of the displaced” in the Palestinian Strip “foreshadows a real health disaster and exposes thousands of residents to the risk of contracting” this disease.

After nine months of war in the Gaza Strip, sewage pumps in Deir al-Balah in the center of the Strip stopped working on Tuesday due to a lack of fuel, according to the municipality.

Stagnant sewage and piles of garbage and rubble constitute a “conducive environment for the spread of various epidemics,” the ministry said, calling for “an immediate cessation of Israeli aggression.”

For its part, the Israeli Ministry of Health said in a statement that the presence of polio virus “type 2” was discovered in wastewater samples from the Gaza area.

According to the World Health Organization website, this strain was eliminated in 1999.

The ministry added that these samples “were tested in an Israeli laboratory accredited by the World Health Organization,” which “raises concerns about the presence of the virus in the region.” She indicated that she is “monitoring” the situation to prevent the spread of “the risk of infection with the disease in Israel.”