UN sounds alarm over first polio case in Gaza Palestinian health officials on Friday reported the first case of polio in an unvaccinated 10-month-old child in the Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, the first case in years in the coastal enclave that has been engulfed in the Israel-Hamas war since Oct. 7. UN health and children’s agencies have called for seven-day pauses in the fighting, starting at the end of August, to vaccinate 640,000 Palestinian children against polio.