Oxfam: Waterborne diseases up nearly 150% in Gaza amid Israeli blockade 

The UK-based charity warned about the crippling health care situation Thursday posed by the deliberate blockade of aid by Israel, with waterborne diseases increasing nearly 150 per cent inside the Gaza Strip.

Oxfam said the Palestinian enclave has become a “petri dish of disease” due to the blockade of aid, while millions of dollars of humanitarian aid pile up in warehouses across the region.

“Water-borne diseases that are both preventable and readily treatable have increased by almost 150 per cent inside Gaza over the past three months as Israel continues to deliberately block aid,” it noted.

The charity said the number of Palestinians presenting at health facilities with acute watery diarrhoea has increased 150 per cent, bloody diarrhoea is up 302 per cent, and acute jaundice cases have climbed 101 per cent, citing multi-agency health data.

Oxfam warned that the surge of disease can “quickly turn deadly,” especially as Palestinians have been deprived of food, water, shelter, and adequate healthcare for more than 21 months.

The charity said the amount of aid that sits in limbo inside warehouses across the regions covers an area of around 75 hectares (185 acres), or enough to cover 101 football fields.

“This aid includes shelters, food and supplements to combat malnutrition, and water equipment, sanitation items and medicines — vital to tackle the spread of disease,” it said.

“The conditions that Palestinians in Gaza are being forced to endure have created a petri dish for disease,” said Bushra Khalidi, policy lead of Oxfam in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel.

“It is shameful Israel has been allowed to besiege Gaza and create this catastrophe. Nothing other than complete access to Gaza to deliver aid at scale can alleviate the conditions that people have been forced to live in,” she added.