Israel continues to deprive Palestinians of clean water, hygiene products, rights group says

Euro-Med Monitor today slammed the Israeli occupation authorities for continuing to enforce an arbitrary blockade on the Gaza Strip, refusing to allow humanitarian aid including clean water into the Strip.

This comes amid the spread of infectious diseases and “on top of the precarious living conditions faced by the approximately 2.3 million Palestinians in the enclave”, the rights group said. These actions, it continued, constitute “a perpetuation of Israel’s comprehensive crime of genocide, which began on 7 October 2023.”

Nothing justifies subjecting the population to conditions that can cause widespread death, including by causing the spread of serious skin diseases and infections, including hepatitis

it added.

Israel continues to systematically and arbitrarily deny hygiene supplies and equipment to all residents of Gaza, exacerbating the catastrophic health crisis that it has imposed on civilians. This crisis has been made worse by the population’s forced, widespread and repeated displacement, as well as the lack of clean water, which has led to the spread of skin diseases, especially among children.

An infographic titled ‘Healthcare system in Gaza is on the verge of collapse’ created in Istanbul, Turkiye on August 1, 2024 [Muhammed Ali Yiğit/Anadolu Agency]

“Sanitation supplies, like tissues, soap, and shampoo, are extremely expensive [or] even nonexistent in the markets,” Aya Kamal Ashour Abed, a 20-year-old displaced mother of two at the Deir Al-Balah Preparatory School for Girls in the central Gaza Strip, told Euro-Med Monitor.

“A bar of soap, for instance, now costs 30 shekels [$9] while a bottle of shampoo costs 90 shekels [$25]. We do not have anything to eat, so how can we afford these?” she asked.

In addition to the lack of hygiene products, Aya highlighted that sanitary products were also difficult to find and are sold at too high a price for displaced Palestinians to purchase.

“Even though my children’s diapers are completely unusable, I have to cut them into tiny pieces and use them as sanitary pads,” Aya explained. “During my period, I also have to use a single pad for the entire day, which has led to numerous infections and rashes.”

Approximately 680,000 women and girls in the Gaza Strip are of reproductive age.

READ: Palestinian children plagued by infectious skin diseases in Gaza