‘GAZA IS A HEALTH CRISIS ON THE BRINK OF EXPLOSION’, ACTION AGAINST HUNGER SAYS

Wed 18 October 2023:

We’ve been focused a lot on diplomacy efforts and geopolitics today as Joe Biden travelled to Israel and protests erupted across cities in the Middle East.

The other side of this story is the worsening situation for the people in Gaza.

At one shelter, a charity has said, 60 percent of children have diarrhoea due to a lack of sanitation in the region.

Action Against Hunger said a lack of access to water is “one of the biggest challenges” in Gaza right now as its humanitarian crisis worsens and children are “most at risk” from the health consequences.

Overcrowded shelters are “close to breaking point”, it said.

“One such shelter is currently supporting more than 24,000 people – with 60% of children there affected by diarrhoea,” the charity said.

“People are also resorting to open defecation. This is a health crisis on the brink of explosion.”

Chiara Saccardi, the charity’s Middle East officer, said families are resorting to non-drinking water and putting themselves at “imminent risk of dehydration and even an outbreak of infectious diseases”.

“Such an epidemic, if it happens, would make this serious crisis an even bigger problem,” she said.

Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza after Hamas’s sweeping raids in the country’s south earlier this month.

It said earlier that it would not block humanitarian aid entering Gaza through Egypt, but did not say when the aid supplies would start crossing into the region.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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