UN officials are preparing to launch a polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip next Sunday, but the campaign will depend on a series of limited pauses in fighting in the territory.

The World Health Organization says it needs to vaccinate at least 90 percent of children in Gaza for the campaign to succeed, but it has pointed to enormous challenges in the Palestinian enclave, which has been devastated by the nearly 11-month-old war.

The campaign was launched after the World Health Organization said on August 23 that a child had been paralyzed by poliovirus type 2, the first such case in the Palestinian territories in 25 years. The organization appealed to UN agencies to launch urgent vaccination efforts.

An Israeli army spokesman announced on Friday that the 98th Division had completed its military operations in the Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah areas, after a month of fighting.

Last April, the Israeli army announced the withdrawal of its forces from Khan Yunis, then returned again, last July, to the area located in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Commissioner of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said on Friday that Israel had killed more than 150 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank since the start of the war on the Gaza Strip.

Lazzarini added, via the "X" platform, that "UNICEF figures confirm that at least 150 Palestinian children have been killed in the West Bank since October 7."

He stated that the agency suspended its services in many West Bank camps due to Israeli military operations, stressing that "the Israeli operation affects tens of thousands of people in 4 refugee camps in the northern West Bank."

The British government said on Friday it was "deeply concerned" about the ongoing Israeli operation in the occupied West Bank, warning that the risk of instability was grave and stressing the urgent need for de-escalation.

At dawn on Wednesday, the Israeli army launched a large-scale military operation in the northern occupied West Bank, the largest since the Second Intifada in 2000, as it included the cities and camps of Jenin, Tulkarm, Nur Shams, Al-Far’a, and Tubas.