The health ministry in Gaza has declared the Palestinian territory a “polio epidemic area”, accusing Israel’s military campaign of destroying health infrastructure, which it says led to the recurrence of the virus, AFP reports.

The CPV2 strain of the virus has been detected in sewage samples collected from the southern Khan Yunis area and central governorates, the ministry said.

It did not say if any human cases had been detected, but said the presence of the virus “constitutes a health threat to the residents of the Gaza Strip and neighbouring countries and a setback to the global polio eradication programme”.

“The brutal Israeli aggression that deprived the people of usable water, the destruction of the sanitation infrastructure, the accumulation of tonnes of garbage and a lack of food security” had led to the recurrence of the virus, the ministry said.