WHO says official large-scale rollout of the vaccine, which aims to reach 640,000 children, will begin on Sunday.
Several children in Gaza have received polio vaccinations a day before a large-scale campaign to inoculate children against the virus and a planned pause in fighting in the besieged territory, Gaza's health ministry said.
Reporters from The Associated Press news agency saw about 10 babies receiving vaccine doses at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Saturday afternoon.
“I was scared and waiting for the vaccine to arrive and for everyone to get it,” said Amal Shaheen, whose daughter received a dose.
The WHO has confirmed that the official large-scale distribution of the vaccine will begin on Sunday.
The three-day vaccination campaign aims to reach some 640,000 Palestinian children and comes after the first case of polio in 25 years was discovered in Gaza this month.
Reporting from Deir-el Balah, Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud said the deployment was scheduled to begin in central Gaza on Sunday.
“On the other days, work will be carried out in Khan Younis and the last deployment will be in the northern part of the Strip,” Mahmoud added.
Israel has agreed to pause its military offensive in Gaza to allow health workers to administer vaccines, UN officials said.
WHO representative in the Palestinian territory, Rik Peeperkorn, said on Thursday that the three pauses will take place from 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. (03:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. GMT) and will last three days each in different areas of Gaza, starting on Sunday. The pauses are not related to the ceasefire negotiations.
“These are very temporary pauses from morning to mid-afternoon in each area. Given the travel logistics of people in Gaza, it is not going to be easy for them to get in and out safely,” Mukesh Kapila, a former WHO official, told Al Jazeera.
He added that Palestinian parents will be worried about the safety of their children as Israeli attacks on health facilities have continued.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has worsened during the Israeli assault on the territory that began after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, which killed at least 1,139 people. The subsequent Israeli offensive has killed at least 40,691 people in Gaza.
On Saturday, the Palestinian Civil Defense agency in Gaza said at least three people were killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike near the al-Ahli Arab Hospital (Baptist Hospital).
Al Jazeera's Mahmoud said that in an earlier attack on the hospital, hundreds of people were killed.
“This is not the first time we have seen the Israeli military directly and deliberately targeting healthcare facilities. This particular hospital was attacked in the first weeks of this war and hundreds of people were killed while they were in the hospital courtyard,” he said.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have been trying for months to broker a ceasefire in Gaza that would also allow for the release of the remaining captives.
But talks have repeatedly stalled as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed a “total victory” over Hamas and the Palestinian group has demanded a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from the territory.
