The Electronic Intifada 16 July 2024
Maintaining hygiene is impossible among the terrible living conditions in Gaza.
APA imagesI am in Egypt and the news from Gaza is breaking my heart.
I feel a deep sense of guilt that I cannot help relatives and friends who are experiencing serious health problems and cannot receive adequate treatment.
Noura, my sister-in-law, is 33.
She has been displaced three times since the current war began.
At the moment, she is living with 10 others in a small tent. It has been set up in Nuseirat, central Gaza.
Mosquitoes, stray dogs, garbage and polluted water are among the problems they face.
Noura and my nephews Jamal, 7, and Jad, 5, have all been diagnosed with hepatitis A, an illness spread by contaminated water.
Unable to travel by car – gas is scarce – Noura has used donkey-drawn carts for visiting doctors.
Following their diagnosis, Noura and her sons were advised to eat honey and avoid using communal bathrooms. Such advice is completely impractical in Gaza at the moment.
In Noura’s words, it is “undignified” that Gaza’s people have to live in unhygienic conditions.
“I only wish we could take a shower with clean water and shampoo,” she said.
Noura cannot afford vegetables, fruit and meat. Israel destroyed the family’s source of income by destroying their store and home during the current war.
Like so many others, they have grown tired of eating canned food.
“My heart breaks when my kids ask for something I can’t provide,” Noura said. “I never thought the war would last this long.”
“Everyone is sick”
Dr. Alaa Muhammad works in a clinic run by the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA).
“We see hundreds of patients daily in our health centers,” he said.
“The need far exceeds our capacity. Almost everyone is sick, especially children and women.”
“The only medication I have here is for reducing fever,” he added. “But hepatitis A patients need vitamins – which are not available at the clinic – to strengthen their immune systems.”
Gaza’s health ministry stated in late June that more than 10,000 cases of hepatitis A had been recorded since the current war began.
My friend Rasha has been displaced to al-Mawasi in southern Gaza.
Both she and her two children have contracted hepatitis A.
“They are sick all the time and not getting the vitamins they need,” she said. “It saddens me to think this might affect their lives in the long-term.”
Fortunately, Rasha survived the massacre which Israel carried out in al-Mawasi on Saturday (13 July).
“It felt like the last day of our lives,” she said.
“We suddenly heard huge bombings and didn’t know what they were,” she added. “People were screaming.”
“We were planning to visit my sister-in-law, who was giving birth. If we had gone, we would have been killed.”
Yasmin Abusayma is a writer and translator from Gaza.
