Skin Infections Deepen Gaza Misery

(MENAFN) A surge in rats, lice, fleas, and mites is driving a rapidly worsening skin infection crisis across the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned Tuesday — as essential medicines remain locked out of the enclave.

UNRWA disclosed that its frontline health teams are currently treating roughly 40% of "thousands of cases," stressing that such conditions are "usually easily managed with simple remedies," which are currently unavailable in Gaza.

"In Gaza, basic medicines are in short supply and many children are left without the treatment they need," the agency stated in a post on US social media company X.

UNRWA issued a stark caution that without large-scale humanitarian access to Gaza, "the situation is likely to deteriorate further."

The alarm arrives as the humanitarian catastrophe inside Gaza deepens, with collapsed medical supply chains and rapidly deteriorating living conditions accelerating the spread of preventable disease throughout the territory.

Since launching its military offensive in October 2023, the Israeli army has killed more than 72,600 people — the majority of them women and children — and wounded upward of 172,000 others, according to figures from Gaza's Health Ministry.

Despite a ceasefire that has nominally been in effect since last October, Israel has consistently refused to permit the agreed volume of humanitarian supplies into the territory, where approximately 2.4 million Palestinians — among them 1.5 million forcibly displaced — continue to endure severe and life-threatening conditions.

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