The UN has confirmed that a baby in Gaza is suffering from paralysis caused by the polio virus, the first recorded case of the disease in Gaza in 25 years of Israel’s genocide and plague campaign against the Palestinians.

UN agencies have publicly confirmed the case, which was first reported by the Gaza Health Ministry earlier this week. Gaza health authorities declared a polio epidemic in late July after poliovirus was detected in several water samples collected in the Gaza Strip.

The baby is 10 months old – meaning he was born just as Israel was beginning its genocide – and has paralysis in his left lower leg, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday. The baby’s condition is stable, Tedros said.

Tedros added that health officials were able to confirm that the virus infecting the baby is linked to the virus found in sewage samples in June. Experts warned that the disease will spread to other nearby regions if not contained.

“Polio does not discriminate between Palestinian and Israeli children. Delaying the humanitarian pause will increase the risk of spread among children,” warned Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

The resurgence of the disease in the Gaza Strip is due to Israel’s relentless attack on sanitation facilities in the Gaza Strip.

Polio is transmitted by eating food or water contaminated with feces. For months, Israel has been systematically destroying sanitation and water supplies in Gaza. Gaza’s streets are flooded with untreated sewage, and children are forced to drink water from puddles and walk through puddles of contaminated water, further increasing their risk of contracting diseases.

Polio has no cure and the paralysis caused by the disease cannot be reversed. Polio can also cause complications later in life, even decades later, such as muscle weakness or paralysis of other parts of the body. The type of polio detected in Gaza, poliovirus type 2, was declared globally eradicated in 2015, meaning many children and babies in Gaza are not vaccinated against the disease and are at risk of contracting it.

UN agencies and officials are calling for a two-week cessation of hostilities – or a permanent ceasefire – so aid agencies can carry out a vaccination campaign to protect children across the region from the virus.

The UN says it plans to launch a vaccination campaign at the end of the month, despite a ceasefire that is unlikely to materialize due to Israeli resistance. However, it says it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to reach all the unvaccinated.

If polio were to spread among children in Gaza, the young generation would be at even greater risk – at a time when Israel is working to destroy their future – and when the Israeli military is not outright killing them. The Israeli military is well aware of the danger of polio. Shortly after polio was first detected in the region, it announced it would offer vaccines to its soldiers. But it said nothing about doing the same for Palestinians under occupation and genocide.

Humanitarian organizations have also raised concerns that polio is not the only threat. Cholera is also a risk that spreads in the same way as polio and would likely be extremely deadly in Gaza, where Israel has destroyed the health system.