‘We are all sick’: Infectious diseases spread across Gaza
Infectious diseases are ravaging the population of the Gaza Strip, the World Health Organization said on Monday, as more people flee to crowded shelters in the south, where dire conditions and a scarcity of food and clean water have created a public health crisis.
Limited sanitation and overcrowding in shelters are causing the spread of disease and preventing people from recovering, said Shannon Barkley, health systems team leader at the World Health Organization offices in Gaza and the West Bank.
The Israeli military announced Monday that it is opening a second security checkpoint at Kerem Shalom Crossing to screen humanitarian aid from Egypt, allowing more food, water, medical supplies and shelter materials to enter Gaza. Many aid groups have said the amount of aid entering Gaza since the collapse of a temporary ceasefire earlier in December has been far from sufficient.
Ms. Barkley said illnesses as common as the common cold could pose serious risks to Palestinians, especially children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems.
Although the collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system has made it difficult to track exact case numbers, the WHO has reported at least 369,000 cases of infectious diseases since the start of the war, based on data collected from the Gaza Ministry of Health and the UNRWA. These figures are likely underreported, Ms. Barkley said, because they do not include cases reported in northern Gaza.
“We are all sick,” said Samah Al-Farra, a 46-year-old mother of ten children. “All my children have a high fever and a stomach virus.”
Ms Al-Farra spoke by phone on Monday from a camp housing displaced Palestinians in Rafah, where the family has been sleeping on the sand since fleeing Khan Younis a week ago. Ms Al-Farra said she and her children have had a high fever and persistent diarrhea and vomiting for the past three days.
“This is all because of the water we drink and the tent we live in,” she said.
Ms Al-Farra, like many others in the battered enclave, said they drank the same water they used to wash themselves, and complained that it smelled bad.
“When I wash my hands, I feel like they’re getting dirtier, not cleaner,” she said.
Her youngest child, six-year-old Hala, had slept most of the past three days and was too weak to ask for food after weeks of starvation. “She used to beg for more food, but now she can’t even keep anything down,” Ms Al-Farra said. Her 9-year-old son, Mohammad, had suffered seizures, probably due to his fever, she added.