UN: Gaza Strip faces public health catastrophe

GAZA, Dec. 13 (YPA) – The United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs said on Wednesday that the Gaza Strip is facing a “public health catastrophe” after the collapse of the health system and the spread of diseases as a result of population overcrowding.

“We all know that the health care system is collapsing or has collapsed,” said Lynn Hastings, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The United Nations and relief organizations have sounded the alarm regarding the spread of infectious diseases in Gaza, where the internal displacement of about 85 percent of the population has caused overcrowding in shelters and other temporary living facilities.

The World Health Organization announced a significant increase in cases of acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, head bugs, skin diseases, and other rapidly spreading diseases.

Hastings said that people in Gaza are forced to wait in line for hours just to get to the toilet. “You can imagine the sanitation conditions,” she added.

The World Health Organization said yesterday, Tuesday, that only 11 of the 36 hospitals in Gaza are partially operating, one in the north of the Strip and ten in the south.

Hastings reported that nearly half of Gaza’s population, numbering 2.3 million, is now in Rafah, at the southern end of the Strip, to escape the Israeli bombing. “This only leads to a health crisis,” she said.