Temporary shelters for people displaced by the 11-month-long war in Gaza are infested with insects and rats, according to a UN agency warning.
Humanitarian aid workers have expressed fears that the general population is at risk of contracting infectious diseases due to a lack of basic materials to maintain hygiene.
Meanwhile, a meeting of independent human rights experts was also held at the UN office in Geneva, expressing concern that Israel is using access to clean water as a weapon for the local population of 2.3 million.
On the issue of safe drinking water and sanitation, United Nations Special Rapporteur Pedro Araújo-Agudo said that nothing can replace drinking water, but if water is not potable, it becomes a terrible carrier of disease.
“So, in this case it is clearly being used as a weapon against the Palestinian civilian population of Gaza.”
cause of pain
As an independent expert commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council, he said ordinary people in Gaza now rely on an average of 4.7 liters of water per day, far less than the minimum 15 liters recommended by the UN Health Organization in emergencies.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says a bar of soap is selling for $10 in Gaza, while shampoo, detergent and cleaning and washing products are not available in the market.
The UN agency says the lack of sanitation materials has a disproportionately high impact on children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems.
Health experts believe that washing hands with soap is the most effective way to prevent diseases caused by dirt such as diarrhea, respiratory infections and other skin infections.
The UN agency stressed that at least five trucks a day would be allowed to deliver basic hygiene items, including soap, to the northern and southern Gaza Strip.
Attack on civil society
Independent human rights experts have expressed their dismay that civil society activists in Gaza are no longer able to work in safe conditions. Israeli military air and ground attacks continue.
In the past few months, staff at the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Gaza’s oldest human rights organization, have been killed and their offices badly damaged in a crackdown by Israeli security forces.
Mary Lawlor and other experts reported that two female Palestinian lawyers and their family members died during the attack in February 2024.
The UN expert said in his statement that it is a terrible tragedy that justice remains out of reach for these two women human rights activists, their families and children. Where the same workers were trying to keep hope of justice alive.