UNRWA: “Worrying spread” of diseases in Gaza

Gaza (Union)

Yesterday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) warned of a “worrying spread” of diseases in the Gaza Strip due to the lack of sanitation services and clean water.
The agency said, in a post on “X”, that “its teams continued to vaccinate children against measles, rubella, mumps, and other diseases, at its clinic in the Gaza Strip,” stressing that the ongoing vaccination campaign it is implementing is considered a lifeline for children.
The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, warned at the end of last month that infectious diseases are spreading in the Gaza Strip, and will continue to spread in light of limited public health services, “and will become the number one cause of death for the population.”
Meanwhile, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) revealed that Israel rejected 22 requests submitted during the past month to open the checkpoints set up in the “Gaza Valley” in order to deliver humanitarian aid to the northern Gaza Strip.
The office said in a statement yesterday: “It is necessary to act early due to the severe traffic congestion around the warehouses and the high level of humanitarian needs.”