1.5M displaced in Gaza with infectious diseases amid Israeli war: Media office

By Mohamed Majid

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - At least 1.5 million displaced individuals in the Gaza Strip have contracted infectious diseases due to displacement resulting from the Israeli war on the besieged enclave, according to the Gaza Media Office on Friday.

In a statement, the office reported: “1,477,748 Palestinian displaced individuals have contracted infectious diseases due to displacement from various areas in the Gaza Strip.”

The office did not specify whether any of the affected individuals had recovered. However, it noted that the number of internally displaced persons in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7 has reached two million.

The statement warned that 3,500 children in the Gaza Strip are at risk starving to death due to blockade and the ongoing Israeli war.

On Thursday, UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said that nine out of 10 children in Gaza suffer from severe malnutrition.

The statement also highlighted that 10,000 cancer patients are facing death and require treatment outside the Gaza Strip, while more than 71 cases of viral hepatitis have been recorded.

Hepatitis A is a highly infectious liver disease caused by a virus resulting from consuming contaminated food or water or close contact with an infected person.

Cases of viral hepatitis have spread in the Gaza Strip, especially among children, due to the lack of personal hygiene, clean water, food contamination, and overcrowding in displacement centers.

Since the closure of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt following Israel's control of the Palestinian side on May 7, no patient or wounded has been able to leave the Gaza Strip.

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since a Hamas attack last Oct. 7 despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

More than 36,700 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 83,500 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio