2023-11-28 15:42:00
Diseases kill more people than bombs in Gaza : World Health Organization
JERUSALEM: If sanitation systems are not improved, more people will die from disease than the bombings in the Gaza Strip, the World Health Organization said.
Since the beginning of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, it has imposed an embargo on fuel, electricity and food, and has carried out targeted attacks once morest hospitals and temporary United Nations facilities.
“If we don’t restore this health system, we’re going to have more people dying from disease than from the bombings.”
We will see,’ WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said in Geneva.
She described the collapse of Al Shifa hospital in northern Gaza as a tragedy and expressed concern over the detention of its medical staff by the Israeli army, which took over the hospital complex earlier this month.
She added concerns regarding outbreaks of infectious diseases in Gaza, particularly diarrheal diseases.
There are no drugs or vaccination activities. Not enough water, food, sanitation,’ Margaret said, citing a United Nations report on the living conditions of displaced residents of northern Gaza.
All major sanitation services in Gaza have been suspended. This can lead to massive spread of many infectious diseases including cholera. Even finding drinking water for 2.3 million inhabitants is now impossible.
So far, WHO has recorded more than 44,000 cases of diarrhea and 70,000 cases of respiratory infections. But the organization said the actual figures might be much higher. The U.N. health agency said the approaching winter, rains and floods will worsen the situation.
“Children in Gaza don’t have access to clean water, which is debilitating,” James Elder, a spokesman for the U.N. children’s agency in Gaza, told reporters.
If the situation does not change, more people will become infected and epidemics will break out,’ said Richard Brennan, Regional Emergencies Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region at the World Health Organization.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health, which is controlled by Hamas, said that no fuel had arrived for generators in Gaza’s hospitals, even though a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas had been extended for two more days.
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