The organization "Action Against Hunger" has warned that the Gaza Strip is at risk of an unprecedented outbreak of diseases this summer due to piles of waste that are rotting because of rising temperatures, worsening the plight of residents already suffering from food shortages. Vinya Diamanti, emergency project coordinator for the NGO, told Reuters that waste management is a primary concern for the organization, as it cannot be removed from the territory and its residents are unable to access landfills. She stated, "The amount of solid waste throughout the sector is causing numerous problems related to hygiene and sanitation."
She added, "We fear the emergence of diseases that have not previously appeared in the sector, particularly affecting the entire population during the summer with rising temperatures." Israel has destroyed most of the Gaza Strip during the ongoing war for the past eight months, and the health ministry in the territory reports that more than 36,500 Palestinians have been killed since then.
The European Union-supported "Copernicus" climate monitoring service reported on Tuesday that last month was the warmest May ever recorded in the world, making it the twelfth consecutive month to set record-level average temperatures. Temperatures reached 38 degrees Celsius during a heatwave that swept Gaza last summer, causing power outages for 12 hours a day.
"Action Against Hunger" is also helping distribute drinking water to charitable kitchens and individuals, as well as providing nutritional supplements to children and vulnerable groups in the sector. Diamanti noted that the rate of malnutrition in Gaza was only 0.8 percent before the war, but the situation has changed radically. She added that although there are no resources to collect the necessary data to determine if there is a famine, people are already dying from malnutrition-related diseases.
She concluded, "We had to intervene to prevent and treat malnutrition, focusing primarily on children under five and pregnant or breastfeeding women."
