Infectious diseases threaten children in Gaza with death

Published at: 05/08/2025 11:58 AM

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), warned that infectious diseases threaten children in the Gaza Strip that could turn out to be a form of silent death.

“We don't need to wait for a famine to be declared in Gaza to know that people are already very hungry, sick and dying while, just a few minutes away, on the other side of the border, they are waiting for food and medicine,” said the director of the WHO.

For its part, the Government's Ministry of Health in Gaza warned that 602,000 children in the Strip are at risk of suffering paralysis or chronic disabilities due to diseases for which vaccines are lacking in the enclave due to the Israeli encirclement of the enclave.

The chief surgeon of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Dr. Tom Potokar, also warned in video diaries recorded at the European Hospital of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, about the lack of medical supplies and overcrowding in health facilities.

According to Oxfam, deadly diseases are ravaging Gaza while humanitarian aid worth millions of dollars is piling up in warehouses across the region.

Added to this are the bombings and destruction that are part of the daily lives of Gazatians, drinking water has also been contaminated due to the destruction of infrastructure, and wastewater has flooded every street, turning them into swamps full of disease-carrying insects.

Mazo News Team