The besieged residents of the Gaza Strip, who have so far survived Israeli bombs and bullets, are increasingly facing the spread of disease amid heavy winter rains that have flooded their makeshift shelters and a serious shortage of food and drinking water.
Doctors and aid workers have warned of outbreaks given the dire humanitarian situation and the enclave’s health system on its knees.
From November 29 to December 10, cases of diarrhea among children under five jumped 66 percent, to 59,895, and increased 55 percent for the rest of the population, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The U.N. health agency warned that the figures were unlikely to give the full picture due to a lack of comprehensive information as Gaza’s health system and other services are on the verge of collapse.
Ahmed al-Farra, head of the pediatrics department at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, said this week that his ward was overrun with children suffering from extreme dehydration, in some cases causing heart failure. renal, while severe diarrhea was four times more frequent than that of children. normal.
He said he was aware of 15 to 30 cases of hepatitis A in Khan Younis over the past two weeks: “The incubation period of the virus is three weeks to a month, so after a month it there will be an explosion in the number of cases. of hepatitis A.”
In its latest report on the situation in Gaza, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the WHO had reported cases of meningitis, chickenpox, jaundice and upper respiratory infections.
Since the truce between Israel and Hamas broke down on December 1, hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to shelter in abandoned buildings, schools and tents. Many others sleep in the open, with little access to toilets or water to wash, aid workers said.
Twenty-one of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are closed, 11 are partially functional and four are operating only minimally, according to WHO figures from December 10.
