REUTERS |
Israel kept up its barrage of the Gaza Strip on Thursday despite intensifying international calls to reduce civilian casualties from its bombardment as a surge in deadly diseases sweeps through displaced residents.
Israel says its attacks on Gaza are aimed at annihilating Hamas, the group whose fighters stormed across the border fence from Gaza on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, and seizing 240 hostages.
Since then, Israel has laid much of the Palestinian enclave to waste. At least 18,608 people have been killed and 50,594 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The vast majority of the population of 2.3 million has fled their homes, many sleeping rough, leaving them vulnerable to illness.
At Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, where the trauma ward has been overwhelmed with the wounded, sick babies were also crammed several to a bed in the children’s ward.
“A number of patients come with cases of extreme dehydration, some of which can get to the point of kidney failure or weakening kidney function,” said Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, head of pediatrics.
There had already been up to 30 cases of hepatitis A, which takes up to a month to incubate, he said.
“So after a month there will be an explosion in the number of cases of hepatitis A, and this is a very dangerous indicator that should be paid attention to, from overcrowding and consuming food not fit for human consumption and using shared toilets,” he said.
The coastal strip is now facing a public health disaster due to the collapse of its health system and the spread of disease, the UN humanitarian office said.
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