International report urges donors to subsidise projects to maintain public health in Gaza

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has called for member states and donors to sponsor projects for developing the medical waste treatment system in the Gaza Strip in order to avoid a health disaster.

OIC said that the Strip is in bad need of equipment used to burning medical wastes. “There are only five medical incinerators in the entire Strip,” OIC humanitarian report for May 2013 said.

OIC warned of the dangerous way in which medical waste is being incinerated in Gaza as it could cause cancer in residents living in the areas around the incinerators.

Meanwhile, the report highlighted the continuous Israeli breaches of the truce reached with Palestinian fighters in Gaza that ended a violent eight day war last November. The OIC report said that Israeli military vehicles keep invading Palestinian farms and razing them.

It also said that the Israeli navy continues its attacks against Palestinian fishing boats off the Gaza coast. The report said that 13 fire attacks against fishing boats were documented in May. Besides this, there were numerous attacks by water cannons which damaged many of the boats.

The report also mentioned that the closing of the Rafah Crossing for five consecutive days in May caused delays for hundreds of students and patients travelling to have treatment abroad. It also caused considerably economic losses.

Regarding solidarity movements, the report said that 21 solidarity delegations arrived in Gaza with 441 solidarity activists during May.