Diseases spread in Gaza amid health system collapse, Israeli strikes

A Palestinian boy, who was diagnosed with gastroenteritis, receives treatment in a hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza. [Fadi Shana/Reuters]

The besieged residents of the Gaza Strip who have so far survived Israel’s bombs and bullets, are increasingly faced with the spread of diseases amid heavy winter rains that have flooded their makeshift shelters, and an acute shortage of food and potable water.

Doctors and aid workers have warned of epidemics given the dire humanitarian situation and with the enclave’s health system on its knees.

From November 29 to December 10, cases of diarrhoea in children under five jumped 66 percent to 59,895, and increased by 55 percent for the rest of the population, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).

The UN health agency cautioned that the figures likely did not provide the full picture because of a lack of complete information with the health system and other services in Gaza near collapse.

Ahmed al-Farra, the head of the paediatric ward at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, said this week that his ward was overrun with children suffering extreme dehydration, causing kidney failure in some cases, while severe diarrhoea was four times higher than normal.

He said he was aware of 15 to 30 cases of hepatitis A in Khan Younis in the past two weeks: “The incubation period of the virus is three weeks to a month, so after a month there will be an explosion in the number of cases of hepatitis A.”

In its latest report on conditions in Gaza, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the WHO has reported cases of meningitis, chickenpox, jaundice and upper respiratory tract infections.

Since the truce between Israel and Hamas collapsed on December 1, hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to shelter in abandoned buildings, schools and tents. Many more are sleeping in the open with little access to toilets or water to bathe, aid workers said.

Twenty-one of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are closed, 11 are partially functional and four are minimally functional, according to WHO figures from December 10.

A Palestinian boy, who has a skin infection, at a hospital in Rafah. [Fadi Shana/Reuters]

The Palestinian health ministry reported 360,000 cases of diseases in crowded shelters for the 1.9 million people displaced by Israel's offensive. [Loay Ayyoub/The Washington Post via Getty Images]

Academic researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine warned in a November 6 report of how the indirect health effects of the conflict would worsen over time. [Loay Ayyoub/The Washington Post via Getty Images]

The report said that two months into the war there would be an increased burden of infant malnutrition due to disrupted feeding and care, as well as the 'increasing chance of introduction of epidemic-prone pathogens', citing overcrowding, and inadequate water and sanitation as risk factors. [Loay Ayyoub/The Washington Post via Getty Images]

More than 300 Ministry of Health staff and medics in Gaza have been killed since October 7. UN special rapporteur on the right to health, Tlaleng Mofokeng, said last week that at least 364 attacks on healthcare services have been recorded in Gaza since the war started. [Said Khatib/AFP]

The UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said two months of war combined with a 'very tight siege' have forced 1.3 million Gazans from a population of 2.3 million to seek safety at its sites in a strip of land by the Mediterranean Sea. [Mahmud Hams/AFP]

'Many of the shelters are overwhelmed with people seeking safety, with four or five times their capacity,' said Juliette Touma, the UNRWA's director of communications. 'Most of the shelters are not equipped with toilets or showers or clean water.' [Mahmud Hams/AFP]

The United Nations is tracking the incidence of 14 diseases with 'epidemic potential' and is most concerned about soaring rates of dysentery, diarrhoea, and acute respiratory infections, according to a list the UN is currently using for Gaza. [Mohammed Abed/AFP]

Palestinian children seek warmth as they gather around a fire at a camp set up in a schoolyard in Rafah. Heavy winds and rains have ripped through flimsy tents and caused flooding that forced people to spend nights huddled in the cold on wet sand. [Mohammed Abed/AFP]

Palestinian children queue to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen amid shortages in food supplies in Rafah. [Saleh Salem/Reuters]

To avoid epidemics, aid workers say hospitals and health centres would need to be able to treat large numbers of people for such diseases, instead of only the trauma wounds they're already overwhelmed with. [Saleh Salem/Reuters]

Drinking and bathing water would need to be available at minimum required levels, according to emergency humanitarian standards, while greater amounts of food and medicine would need to come into the Gaza Strip with safe passage provided for humanitarian convoys to deliver it, the aid workers say. [Mohammed Abed/AFP]

The last truce ensured that about 200 aid trucks a day entered Gaza, but that has since dwindled to 100 and fierce fighting has mostly prevented any distribution beyond Rafah. [Giuseppe Cacace/AFP]