Palestinians across Gaza are facing heightened health and environmental risks owing to limited access to clean water, sewage overflow, infrastructural damage and a lack of hygiene items, according to the UN. Avoidable skin diseases are spreading among the displaced as a result of the lack of hygiene kits, water and the close proximity of living.
Throughout the Gaza Strip, hundreds of thousands of tonnes of solid waste are piling up in streets, between tents in displacement camps, and next to the rubble in back alleys. The collapse of solid waste management since the war began is worsening the public health crisis.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), doctors are wrestling with cases of lice, scabies and skin rashes.
On 16 August a 10-month-old baby became the first Palestinian to be diagnosed with polio after the disease was detected in Gaza’s water. A polio vaccine drive has since been deployed, with a second round of vaccinations due to be carried out in October.
A report by the Pacific Institute, a California-based non-partisan think tank, revealed in August that despite its small size and accounting for only 0.12 per cent of the global population, Israeli attacks on Palestinian water supplies accounted for a staggering quarter of all water-related violence globally in 2023.
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Displaced Gazans face health crisis due to wastewater flooding their tents
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Polio virus found in Gaza water
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Gaza reporter forced to walk through sewage
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Gaza's olive trees die as sewage floods farms
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Gaza grapples with garbage crisis amid ongoing Israeli attacks
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Senior Israeli doctors highlight disease threat from Gaza to Israel
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‘They're essentially living on top of each other and exposed to disease’
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Man from Gaza unable to access critical medication
Concept, research and text: Sara Khalil
Videos: Middle East Monitor
Development: MEMO's Digital Team