GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations humanitarian office said on Wednesday that Gaza faced a “public health disaster” due to the collapse of its health system and the spread of disease caused by overcrowding.
“We all know that the health care system is or has collapsed,” said Lynn Hastings, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
“We’ve got a textbook formula for epidemics and a public health disaster.”
The United Nations and aid groups have sounded the alarm about the spread of infectious disease in Gaza, where the internal displacement of 85% of the population has caused overcrowding in shelters and other temporary living facilities.
WHO has reported a sharp uptick in acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea, lice, scabies and other fast-spreading diseases.
Hastings said people in Gaza had to line up for hours just to access a toilet.
“You can imagine what the sanitation conditions are like,” she said.
WHO said on Tuesday that only 11 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals were partially functional, one in the north and 10 in the south of the enclave.
Hasting said that almost half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million was now in Rafah in the southern tip of the enclave to escape Israeli bombardment.
“This is leading to nothing but a health crisis,” she said.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber, editing by Kirsti Knolle)
