“The experiences of the desperate parents I met last week may illustrate this better than I can,” UNICEF communications specialist Salim Oweis told reporters attending the bi-weekly humanitarian briefing at the UN in Geneva.
Among them is Hind, who has not slept since her 4-year-old daughter Masa was bitten by a rat during the night.
They are taking shelter in a building “where sewage seeps through the ceilings and rodents crawl through the building’s cracks and climb through exposed pipes.”
agony and defeat
Another mother, Amani, cares for her 7-year-old daughter Lemar, who has injuries and sores on her head, back and legs due to a bacterial infection.
“Amani tries to clean her wounds every day with the little clean water she has, which is difficult to obtain, while her daughter screams in agony,” he said.
Meanwhile, Abdel Aleem and his family have placed sandbags around the outside of their tent to protect themselves from the rats that “just chew on it,” as “stopping them is useless.”
Both he and his eight-month-old son Ahmad, as well as his pregnant sister-in-law, have already been bitten in recent weeks.
Parents feel helpless
“The common thread running through each of these conversations is the utter anguish of parents who no longer feel able to do what is most innate to them: protect the health and safety of their children,” Mr. Olweis said.
The situation is easy to understand just by looking at the conditions in Gaza, he added, which was already among the most densely populated places in the world.
“Now, people have been crammed into about 40 percent of the space they have left, taking shelter among dilapidated buildings, rubble and increasing solid waste,” he said.
“Families across Gaza do not have enough drinking water and are forced to choose between drinking, washing and cooking with the little they have.”
Obstacles and restrictions
UNICEF is working to reach 1.5 million people a month with clean water, but continues to face significant obstacles.
Last month, two truck drivers hired by UNICEF died while trying to collect water at the Al Mansoura filling point. The water filling station, on which more than a quarter of a million people depend, is now inaccessible.
At the same time, critical items needed to sustain water systems and repair damaged water infrastructure, such as oil, water treatment chemicals and spare parts, are not allowed into Gaza on the necessary scale.
Furthermore, solid waste accumulates day by day, along with debris, and both need to be removed.
Diseases, diarrhea and infections.
“The effects of this are now widely evident: children with respiratory infections, acute watery diarrhea and more than half of all households report skin diseases”Mr. Olweis said.
“Fleas, lice and scabies are common. An increasing number of children require hospitalization. All this without a single fully functioning hospital in all of Gaza.”
Furthermore, although humanitarian workers have managed to reverse famine conditions, “the number of malnourished and vulnerable children remains extremely serious.”
He warned that “without enough clean water and fuel to cook adequate meals, Even children who recover with treatment will quickly fall back into a cycle of malnutrition, the effects of which can last a lifetime..”
A “completely excessive” situation
Mr. Olweis stressed that “no parent should find themselves in a situation where they cannot provide their children with the basic needs to keep them healthy.”
They should also not have to watch their children suffer pain from injuries or weakness due to preventable diarrhea.
“That this is happening should be, for everyone, totally unacceptable,” he said. “Access to water, adequate nutritious food and health care should not be conditional for any child, anywhere.”
To break the cycle of suffering in Gaza, UNICEF calls for unrestricted access for humanitarian operations, the lifting of restrictions on items needed to repair and maintain water and sanitation systems, and respect for international humanitarian law.