Disease could kill more in Gaza than bombs, WHO says amid Israeli siege

[Ohlalalalala]

Disease could kill more in Gaza than bombs, WHO says amid Israeli siege https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/28/disease-could-kill-more-in-gaza-than-bombs-who-says-amid-israeli-siege

Shattered healthcare and sanitation systems must be restored in Gaza, says World Health Organization.

UN official Tor Wennesland warned the humanitarian situation “remains catastrophic”.

Israeli bombardment has killed more than 14,800 Palestinians, including 6,150 children and more than 4,000 women, according to health authorities in the enclave.

The ethics of this conflict are so complicated that the humanitarian crisis is sliding off the agenda.
We can’t bring back the dead from 7/10 but a ceasefire can save lives.
Medecin sans Frontiers Dr Chris Hook said
“While the risk of violent attacks for civilians in Gaza persists, infections resulting from poorly treated wounds are rising fast.
There are only a few primary health care facilities remaining in the south, meaning that there is little treatment available for infectious diseases which spread uncontrollably in overcrowded conditions.
Humanitarian pauses and a trickle of aid are not enough. A ceasefire is needed….The damage that has been done to the health system, to civilian infrastructure and to all society in Gaza will require years of humanitarian support to try to alleviate. The sheer scale of human loss and the accompanying grief may never be assuagedy”

An old post but @Kindatired I do agree that the humanitarian crisis is sliding down the agenda.

There are sources reporting that currently Gaza is the world’s worst hunger crisis with half a million people now believed to be at the most severe catastrophic level, meaning a high risk of mass starvation and death.

The misery being faced by the thousands of displaced, and the indignity of having to pick up grains of rice from the floor just for something to eat. Children queuing for hours for a meal. The poor newborn babies dying from disease and hunger, not even having a chance at life. All of this is going to be magnified coming into the winter.

Disease is also spreading. Thousands have diarrhoea. There was an outbreak of chickenpox. I dread to think what the death toll will be if a ceasefire does not happen soon and more aid is not allowed in. Hundreds of thousands? A million?

If it’s really going to take years to defeat Hamas, surely something has to change, otherwise the entire population is going to either starve or succumb to disease?!

https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/intensifying-conflict-malnutrition-and-disease-gaza-strip-creates-deadly-cycle

It’s appalling and it’s just going under the radar. Oxfam says only about 10% of the food they need is getting in, reported cases of diarrhoea are 40 times last years ( how can they even count them with bombs dropping down ) and they were flooded with contaminated sewage last week.

There was an interview on radio this evening with a UNICEF rep who is in Gaza right now and said they've tried 8 times in the last 2 weeks to get Israel to agree to allow their workers safe passage into northern Gaza to bring aid in. They've been turned down each time.

She also said that people are starving. She was asked if people would die of starvation and she said that the malnourished babies born to malnourished mothers are already dying.