Health officials in the Gaza Strip confirmed the territory's first five cases of swine flu on Sunday.
The territory's Health Ministry is working with the World Health Organization to obtain the supplies needed to treat the potentially deadly virus.
Neighboring Israel has a blockade on Gaza, and Egypt restricts movement across its border with the Hamas-controlled territory. Health officials say that isolation likely kept the H1N1 virus from affecting the coastal territory sooner.
Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza after the Islamic militant group Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007, pushing out forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
