Thousands of displaced families in the Gaza Strip are living in escalating fear and suffering inside their tents, as rodents and insects proliferate among shelters and displacement camps. This is compounded by deteriorating health and environmental conditions resulting from accumulated waste and the collapse of sanitation services. Displaced people say that rats now enter their tents daily, contaminating food and attacking children at night. There are growing fears of skin diseases and contamination spreading within the overcrowded environment, which lacks even the most basic services.
In one of the displacement camps in central Gaza City, Fadi Jundiya, who was displaced from the eastern part of the city, says that rodents have become a part of daily life in the camp.
He added, “We have been suffering from rats since the first day the camp was established, but now their numbers are increasing abnormally among the tents. Every time we get rid of one rat, another appears, and we have no real solutions.” He pointed out that rats are tearing the plastic coverings of tents and spoiling food supplies, explaining that “primitive traps are no longer effective, given the lack of specialized poisons or their exorbitant prices, which are beyond the means of the displaced.”
He added that children live in terror at night, especially when going to the toilets, due to the frequent incidents of bites and scratches within the camps.
This comes as the United Nations has warned of a rapidly deteriorating health situation in the Gaza Strip, with the increasing spread of rodents and insects among the tents of displaced people.
UN humanitarian partners report that displaced families are increasingly reporting skin infections and other illnesses resulting from rats and insects entering their tents or contaminating their food.
