GAZA CITY: Doctors in Gaza say patients arriving at hospitals are showing sig­ns of disease caused by overcrowding and poor sanitation after more than 1.4 million people fled their homes for temporary shelters under Israel’s heaviest-ever bombardment.

Aid agencies have repeatedly warned of a health crisis in the tiny, crowded Palestinian enclave under an Israeli blockade that has cut off electricity, clean water and fuel, with only small UN convoys of food and medicine getting in.

“The crowding of civilians and the fact that most schools used as shelters are housing lots of people, it’s a prime breeding ground for disease to spread,” said Nahed Abu Taaema, a public health doctor at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis.

With all hospitals running out of fuel to power their generators, doctors have warned that critical equipment, like incubators for newborns, risks stopping.

In the temporary shelters where displaced Palestinians are crowding with their families hoping for safety from the bombs, people are starting to suffer from stomach complaints, lung infections and rashes said Abu Taaema of Nasser Hospital.

“It’s hot in the tent under the midday sun and there are insects and flies... At night it’s cold and there aren’t enough blankets for everyone. The children are all sick,” said Sojood Najm, a woman staying at a UN shelter.

She fled her home in Gaza City with her husband and three children and they have been living in a tent for nine days, unable to bathe. “Every day I cry to my mother,” said Najm.

At a pharmacy, the owner said there were few stores left. People had stockpiled over-the-counter medicines, but there were concerns that treatments for chronic illnesses could run out.

While health concerns grow, it is still the intensifying bombardment that is causing most suffering in Gaza.

After an air strike in Khan Yunis, Abdallah Tabash held his dead daughter Sidra, refusing to let go as he held her bloodstained face and hair. “I want to look at her as much as I can,” he said.

Twins Wateen and Ahmed lost their mother in an Israeli air strike in Khan Yunis.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2023