It may cause more deaths than explosions

Hamas carried out the largest attack against Israel in recent years. The Israeli army declared a “state of war alert.” The World Health Organization said the region’s health system should be urgently repaired on the fifth day of the “humanitarian outage” in Gaza reached between Israel and Hamas.

According to what was reported by Reuters, World Health Organization spokeswoman Margaret Harris indicated that the number of people who died from diseases in Gaza may be higher than those who lost their lives in bombing operations.

Harris noted that infectious diseases and cases of diarrhea among children in Gaza have increased, and said: “If we cannot unify the health system again, we will ultimately see more people dying from diseases than even from bombing.”

Harris confirmed that there is an increase in infectious diseases, especially cases of diarrhea among children, and that cases of diarrhea among children aged 5 years and under have increased more than 100 times compared to November 2022.

26 out of 36 hospitals are out of service

Providing information about northern Gaza, where Israel requested evacuation, Harris explained that displaced people there do not have access to medicines, vaccines, safe water, hygiene products and food.

“We are seeing a very high number of cases of diarrhea among young children,” Harris said.

The spokesman for the United Nations Children’s Unit, James Elder, said that the Gaza Strip is full of children suffering from burns, shrapnel, and stomach and intestinal infections due to drinking contaminated water.

“I have met many parents,” Elder said. “They know exactly what their children need, but they are upset that they do not have access to clean, drinkable water.”

“Doctors everywhere are having to make terrible decisions about who to prioritize,” Elder said, adding that in Gaza, a child without a leg had to lie on the ground for hours because there were no medical staff in the hospital, while other children slept in makeshift spaces. Beds in parking lots or in parks.

Harris described the situation at Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest health complex in Gaza, as a “tragedy” and expressed concern about the detention of the hospital director by Israeli forces, stating that 26 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza had been forced to close due to bombing or lack of supplies. fuel.