UNRWA: 75% of Gazans drink contaminated water, 90% of children sick

Media Advisor to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Adnan Abu Hasna has confirmed that 75 per cent of the people in the Gaza Strip drink contaminated water, while 90 per cent of the children are sick on account of this and overcrowding in shelters.

In an interview with TV channel Al-Araby, the UNRWA official warned that the healthcare system in Gaza had completely collapsed.

On Wednesday, UNRWA shared that humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip had decreased by 50 per cent in February compared to January, adding that it was: “Unable to safely reach northern Gaza and parts of southern Gaza.”

“Aid convoys are still under fire, and the Israeli authorities are preventing access to them,” it disclosed in a report published on its website, adding that “44 per cent of UNRWA schools were hit or directly damaged” in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

According to the results of recent malnutrition examinations conducted by the Global Nutrition Cluster, the rate of general acute malnutrition in Gaza has significantly increased among children between the ages of six and 59 months to 16.2 per cent, which exceeds the critical threshold set by the World Health Organization at 15 per cent.

On 17 November, UNRWA announced that people in the northern Gaza Strip are “on the brink of famine and have no place to go” in light of the ongoing war.

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