The United Nations has called for a 7-day truce in Gaza to vaccinate more than 640,000 children against polio, which was discovered in sewage in the Strip.

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

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

In late July, World Health Organization spokesman Christian Lindmeier confirmed that the emergence of polio cases in the Gaza Strip could represent a setback for international efforts to eradicate the disease, suggesting that cases of the disease would likely emerge in the Strip.

Lindmeier said at a news conference at the United Nations that the people of Gaza may have already been infected with the disease, but it is difficult to detect cases of this deadly virus because most of them are asymptomatic.

He added: "Finding vaccine-derived poliovirus in wastewater indicates that it is present in some people, which represents a high possibility of an outbreak of the virus, and this would represent a major setback to global efforts."

“An investigation and risk assessment is still ongoing in the sector,” Lindmeier added.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced in a previous statement that the polio epidemic had reappeared in the Strip after samples of the disease virus were found in sewage water.

The Ministry of Health said in a statement: “We declare the Gaza Strip a polio epidemic area, and this poses a health threat to the residents of the Gaza Strip and neighboring countries and a setback to the global polio eradication program.”