Gaza: Over 700,000 cases of infectious diseases in shelters

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said yesterday that around 700,000 people in Gaza now suffer from contagious diseases, including skin diseases, infections, diarrhoea and jaundice, as a result of “overcrowding inside shelters, lack of food, water and required medical care.”

Ministry spokesman, Ashraf Al-Qudra, told reporters outside Tal Al-Sultan Maternity Hospital in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, that about two million displaced people are living in catastrophic conditions in overcrowded shelters as winter conditions intensify.

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He pointed out that the Ministry of Health has opened 47 medical points near shelters in Rafah and called on international institutions to urgently intervene and provide more medical centres and the necessary medicines, especially for chronic diseases, pregnant women and children.

The statement called for “the provision of medical teams and field hospitals to support the health system in saving the lives of the wounded and sick as the Israeli aggression continues.”

Israel’s genocidal offensive against Gaza has left 85 per cent o the enclave’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

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