September 9,
2024
Polio. Chickenpox.
Hepatitis. The threat of epidemics is looming large in Gaza, thanks to Israel’s
deliberate destruction of the Strip’s healthcare and sanitation infrastructure.
Left without clean water, sewage, waste disposal, and adequate shelter, the
health of Palestinians in Gaza is rapidly declining. Children and the elderly
are among the most vulnerable, and time is running out. The Real News reports
from the ground in Gaza, speaking directly with sanitation experts and local
mothers about the conditions Israel has created through its total war on the
Palestinian people.
Transcript
Najwa Saleh:
This is my
granddaughter. She is one and a half years old. She was displaced
when she was six months
old. It’s a shame this is happening to her. Look at her back. Look!
She’s suffering from
chickenpox and rashes.
Look, Look! This is
shameful to happen to a child. She’s sleeping in a tent. She’s suffering
from the heat, the
contaminated water.
Narrator:
Soaring temperatures, a
decimated water and sewage system, extremely limited access to
water and cycles of
displacement have all combined to create a public health catastrophe in
Gaza. Najwa Saleh and
her family were displaced multiple times before setting up most
recently in Deir Al
Balah. Here, as well as bombs, they face a more subtle creeping danger.
Najwa Saleh:
Displacement has been
honestly very difficult,
very very difficult.
We’re tired, our psychological state is bad. I have eight people in a small
tent. The sun has
destroyed us, the heat is killing us. I mean, we’re being moved from place
to place and we’re
tired. It’s really hard. Water is a problem, we buy
a gallon of water for 4
shekels (1.2 USD). We get water here at the college and it’s salty! It’s
sea water, and sea
water burns the body. I have children and grandchildren, their skin is
completely covered in
spots. We took them to the doctor and they don’t get better. I swear to god my
granddaughter, we put something on her body but it’s not going away. Her body
is scary. If you saw her body, it’s scary. I mean, we’re really really tired.
We beg God to finish with this story. We’re very tired. Our lives have become
hell. All the other countries are watching, while we’re being tortured.
Narrator:
It’s here in Deir El
Balah, where Najwa is currently living, where samples taken from the
sewage water in July
revealed the presence of the Polio virus. A highly infectious disease,
brought on by poor
sanitation. Polio can cause myriad health problems for infected people,
and can lead to
paralysis and in some cases even death. Rawiya Sultan Ayyad, is another
refugee recently
displaced to Deir Al Balah.
Rawiya Sultan Said
Ayyad:
The itching, we all got
scabies here. Adults and children we all have scabies. From when we
came to Deir (al
Balah). More than the other places, we were in Khan Yunis, then Rafah and
then we came here and
here it was the worst. All my children have skin infections. All of
them, from my 5 year
old and up, theyre all children. We also have someone with kidney
problems with us here
and the contaminated water affects him. With regards to
contaminated water,
it’s something difficult for us. We have all contracted Dermatitis. There’s
also Hepatitis here from lack of sanitation and lack of cleaning products
available. We’re going through a very hard situation. Harder than hard. There’s
no work. My husband is imprisoned. My children don’t work. It’s an extremely
difficult time. Treatment is difficult. Just the anti-histamines, but actually
even that is not available. For around 3 months now there’snnothing available
in any clinic or pharmacy or government dispensary.
Narrator:
Noor Al Huda is an
Environmental specialist working for local authorities in Gaza. She
describes the current
situation.
Noor Al Huda Abu
Muaylik:
Here displaced people
are relying on salty sea water and on drinking water that is literally
mixed with sewage
water. As you can see here there are lakes of sewage, that authorities
can’t clean due to lack
of fuel and lack of electricity and due to the security situation which
makes it hard to be
taken care of.
Where we are currently
the area of Al Bassa, which is low lying and therefore encourages
sewage to collect here
this area is not connected to the sewage system in Gaza, even
before the war, it
relied on septic pits. Since the war, everyone here without exception relies
on septic pits inside
the tents. There are cess pits that are present within the camps where
people sleep, eat and
drink due to a lack of sewage systems and lack of homes that people
lost in light of this
war.
Narrator:
For Najwa and her
family, the situation in Deir Al Balah has become unbearable.
Najwa Saleh:
We ran away because of
our children, now we are living with contaminated water
and the hardships of
living in tents. Our lives have become unbearable.
My grandson, Look at
his back. Look. Look, look. Here, look.
There’s no soaps, no
cleaning products at all. We’re washing with dish soap. We’re cleaning
with dish soap. Were
wiping with dish soap. Washing our hands.
All these microbes and
bacteria are not good. It’s all just salt and it doesn’t clean,
don’t tell me it’s good
and it works. Their bodies are covered in spots. Us adults, we also
contracted it. From the
contaminated water and the sewage. We adults contracted it.
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