GAZA, (PIC)
The humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip is deepening in an unprecedented manner, as displacement camps transform into a dangerous environment that threatens life not only due to the bombing and siege, but also because of the spread of rodents that have become a direct health danger to thousands of families, in light of a sharp deterioration in environmental conditions and the absence of basic protection means.
In one of the most shocking incidents, the elderly woman Inshirah Hajjaj, 68 years old, woke up inside her tent in the Arafat camp in the center of Gaza City, to heavy bleeding in her feet, to discover that rats had gnawed her toes while she was sleeping, without her feeling it as a result of her suffering from “diabetic foot.”
Hajjaj, who supports an elderly husband suffering from atrophy in brain functions, says, “We live with rats, they eat from what we eat and sleep where we sleep… I fear that I will wake up one day having lost my foot completely.”
This incident does not represent an isolated case, but rather comes within a series of repeated events reflecting a tragic reality inside the tents, where tight doors and prevention tools are absent, and families share narrow spaces with rodents that are active at night, causing a permanent state of fear and insecurity.
In another incident, the infant Adam Al-Ustaz, 28 days old, was subjected to a rat bite in his face inside his family’s tent in the Al-Maqousi area west of Gaza, which led to a deep injury that required urgent medical intervention, amid increasing fears for the safety of children, who constitute the most vulnerable group.
Displaced people relate daily details about the intrusion of rodents into their tents, where the small amounts of available food are looted, while attempts to approach sleeping places do not stop, especially for children.
Abeer Murad confirms that she is forced to keep her children awake or under constant supervision for fear of them being bitten.
In the same context, Khalid Abu Shawish says that rodents “have no longer become just a source of annoyance, but a real danger threatening life,” pointing to the failure of primitive means in limiting their spread due to the large numbers and the absence of any organized intervention.
Health warnings of disease outbreaks
Specialists and the Ministry of Health warn that the current environment in the Gaza Strip, with the accumulation of waste and rubble and the deterioration in sewage services it witnesses, constitutes a fertile environment for the spread of rodents and the dangerous diseases they carry.
The Minister of Health, Majid Abu Ramadan, confirmed that the spread of rats increases the possibility of the outbreak of multiple diseases, whether through direct biting or through urine and waste or transmitting parasites such as fleas and ticks, and the most prominent of them are: Hantavirus, plague, leptospirosis (rat fever), salmonella, and tularemia.
He pointed out that more than one million citizens currently live in fragile housing conditions, inside tents or in the open, which doubles the level of their exposure to these health risks, in light of limited medical capabilities and the decline in the ability to respond to calls for assistance.
Children in the circle of danger
The danger of the scene is exacerbated among children, who already suffer from malnutrition and weak immunity, alongside permanent injuries and disabilities left by the war, making them more vulnerable to infection with diseases and complications.
Medical teams warn of recording cases of acute infections among children as a result of rodent bites, at a time when it is difficult to provide sufficient treatment, especially inside temporary medical centers.
Calls for urgent intervention
In light of this reality, calls are escalating to the World Health Organization and all international bodies to intervene immediately, through the entry of rodent control materials, strengthening prevention measures, improving waste management, and providing a safer housing environment for the displaced.
Observers believe that the continuation of these conditions without urgent intervention portends a wide-scale health and environmental disaster, which may double the suffering of the population, and add a new chapter of pain to a humanitarian reality that is already on the brink of collapse.
