The World Health Organization (WHO) has said they need "seven days of no fighting" in order to implement their polio vaccination programme in Gaza, according to Margaret Harris.

Amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, Israel have indicated they will co-operate with UNICEF and the WHO to ensure children's health is prioritized as poor sanitation and water supplies threaten lives in the region.

Gaza recorded its first case of polio in 25 years last week, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

A ten-month-old child was diagnosed after doctors observed the presence of symptoms consistent with the illness, and tests carried out in Jordan confirmed the presence of the virus, the ministry said in a statement.

The opportunity to have a pause in the conflict would be one health officials would jump at, WHO spokesperson Harris said. "I can't speak for Israel but if indeed that has been agreed, that's very news because we certainly need it and we need seven days of no fighting, no conflict," she explained.

"We have people all over the Strip we need to reach and the best way to reach them is through the health centers and the hospitals and many of them are inaccessible because they're so close to areas of the conflict.

"We also need to be able to bring in clean water, scale up the water and sanitation system, because it's essential with polio you have good levels of hygiene, otherwise it's going to spread very rapidly. Having those pauses would be a very good start - ideally, what we need to see of course is a ceasefire."

Harris confirmed three cases were already under review as polio is battled in Gaza and a massive immunization campaign gets under way amid the conflict.

"So what we know is three cases of acute flaccid paralysis were detected," she added. When you're looking for polio, you look to see if any children have what you call flaccid paralysis.

"There are other causes but we have seen this in three children and have sent samples and are awaiting results of those. The fact it was found in the waste water indicates the virus is circulating in Gaza and that is why we're urgently trying to mount this immunization campaign, aiming to get to over 640,000 children."

Polio, which mostly affects young children, attacks the nervous system and can lead to spinal and respiratory paralysis, sometimes resulting in death.

Harris claimed the conflicty between Israel and Hamas had led to the return of the deadly disease.

"It's a tragedy and it's really the conflict: the absolute destruction of the health system and the water and sanitation system and having people herded so closely together with no means of simply disposing of their human waste, no means to even wash their hands," she said.

"My colleagues talk about promoting hand washing - you can't promote hand washing if people can't get to clean water.

"Gaza was a model, they had an over 99 percent child immunization rate, which is as good as it gets anywhere in the world and that's dropped drastically. We now have a year's worth of babies born with minimal access to healthcare and certainly hardly any access to immunization."

The WHO will hope to put a halt to what is feared to be a so-called contagion timebomb in the Gaza Strip but this campaign is just the start, Dr Harris claimed, with far more needing to be done to protect Gazan children.

"Ideally it will help stop the spread," she added. "This can spread very easily in neighboring countries, across borders.

"These children have had so little access to the level of healthcare they need, it should just be the beginning, not just 'we've done that, fixed'. We've got so much to do to give these children a chance at a decent life."

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