Oxfam warns of severe risk of epidemic outbreak in Gaza

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agecnies
14 May 2024 06:03
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The charity has said that Israeli attacks on water and sanitation infrastructure have pushed the Gaza Strip to the brink of an epidemic outbreak.

Displaced Palestinians collect water in a makeshift tent camp in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Palestine, on December 28, 2023. (AP)

The Israeli ground invasion in Rafah has further worsened the humanitarian situation in the besieged Gaza Strip, pushing it to the verge of a "deadly epidemic outbreak," according to Oxfam, a United Kingdom-based charity organization

As mentioned by the organization, when added to overcrowding, malnutrition, and heat, "Israel's" destruction of critical water and sanitation infrastructure has brought a severe risk of epidemic outbreak in the Gaza Strip.

"The situation is further compounded by the Israeli invasion of Rafah which has forced over 350,000 people to flee to already overcrowded shelters and camps, and food and fuel are running out with the closure of border crossings," the organization explained.

Moreover, Oxfam said that the Israeli regime either severely damaged or destroyed five of its life-saving water and sanitation projects in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023. The Israeli occupation caused at least $210 million of damage to the Gaza Strip's water and sanitation infrastructure, which has resulted in piles of human waste and rivers of sewage in the streets.

Oxfam's staff reported "people having to drink dirty water and children being bitten by insects swarming around the sewage."

These conditions have made it ripe for the outbreak of epidemics including Hepatitis A and cholera.

Palestinian civilians navigate horrible conditions amid direct bombardment

Not only do Palestinians in the Gaza Strip deal with horrible sanitary conditions, but they also have to find their way around extreme food shortages that have pushed the population to the brink of famine.

Furthermore, Palestinians continue to navigate their lives amid intense bombardment of residential areas, camps, and schools, which are targeting areas across the entirety of the Gaza Strip.

In this context, Volker Turk, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, said that the latest Israeli orders "affect close to a million people in Rafah. So where should they go now? There is no safe place in Gaza!"

"These exhausted, famished people, many of whom have been displaced many times already, have no good options," he stated, emphasizing that the offensive could be "catastrophic" with further atrocities anticipated.

"I can see no way that the latest evacuation orders, much less a full assault, in an area with an extremely dense presence of civilians, can be reconciled with the binding requirements of international humanitarian law and with the two sets of binding provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice," he stressed.

The latest toll released by the Ministry of Health in Gaza has revealed that the Israeli occupation killed 35,091 Palestinians and resulted in 78,827 injuries, noting that thousands of casualties remain trapped under rubble and on roads where ambulance and civil defense teams either cannot or are prohibited from reaching them.