Gaza Municipality spokesperson Basem Muhanna warned of a worsening health and environmental crisis in the city, emphasizing that controlling the rodent infestation has become nearly impossible due to the enormous quantities of accumulated rubble and waste.
Muhanna explained that the available quantities of poison bait cover only a small fraction of the actual need, noting that the current priority is transporting the piles of waste to the south of Gaza City, while the amount of rubble is estimated at approximately 25 million tons.
He added that the Israeli occupation destroyed approximately 15,000 linear meters of the stormwater drainage network and 220,000 linear meters (220 kilometers) of the sewage network, leading to a near-total collapse of sanitation services and creating an ideal environment for rodent breeding and proliferation.
Muhanna stressed that using poison bait alone will not be sufficient without removing the rubble and waste and rehabilitating the sewage networks, calling for urgent intervention to support the Gaza Municipality and enable it to confront the escalating health and environmental crisis.
