Disease without borders: Gaza’s waste crisis also threatens Israel

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war and the near-total paralysis of sanitation and waste removal systems in Gaza, hundreds of massive garbage piles have accumulated across the Strip.

UNRWA, the United Nations agency responsible for providing welfare services to Palestinian refugees, estimated that by early July, approximately 330,000 tons of solid waste in Gaza — enough to fill more than 200 football fields — had been neither buried nor treated.

Recently, traces of polio were found in Gaza's waste, while vaccination rates have plummeted due to the war. More than 40,000 cases of hepatitis A have been recorded, in addition to staggering numbers of diarrhoea, scabies and jaundice as a sample.

The dire sanitary situation in Gaza is evident in almost every satellite image of the coastal enclave, and testimony from Israeli soldiers who served there amplifies the obvious. According to soldiers, for example, troops serving in Gaza defecate in plastic bags, which they then throw out of the windows of the buildings in which they are deployed, along with any other garbage that builds up during their time there.

Israeli soldiers must now be vaccinated for polio before going into Gaza, and the World Health Organization has sent about one million polio vaccines to the Strip, hoping to vaccinate as many residents as possible. But no political boundary can permanently stop an infectious disease.

The Israel Defence Forces issued a statement saying that in cooperation with UNICEF, the army has facilitated the shipment of 520,000 vials of vaccines of various kinds to Gaza. The army said the vaccines would cover more than two million people.

Israeli medical officials say the situation in Gaza doesn't pose a real health risk to Israel because the Israeli health system is functioning well, and the Israeli vaccination rate is high.

Army officials said the security establishment is working actively to step up the medical response in Gaza. They said Israel is collaborating with the World Health Organization, humanitarian organisations specialising in medical care, and with donor countries. Nevertheless, the presence of the poliovirus in sewage in Gaza prompted the Israeli Health Ministry to order a halt to the pumping of water in Israel from potentially affected areas.

It also stepped-up monitoring for polio and other causes of infectious disease in Israel's sewage system. At the same time, the military has begun a vaccination campaign for soldiers serving in Gaza against polio, hepatitis A and tetanus.

Gaza's water situation is also disastrous.

In a poll from late May, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that only 36 percent of Gazans said water was available where they are staying.

An Oxfam report from July found that from November through to May, Gazans had an average of 4.74 litres of water per capita per day. That's less than one-third of the minimum amount needed for survival in emergencies: 15 litres of water per day, including drinking water and hygiene needs.

At the start of the war, the Israeli government shut down the three pipelines for the water that Israel sells to Gaza, making up about 12 percent of Gaza's water supply (according to a recent report on water from international NGO, Oxfam). Two have been reopened, but the damage means just a fraction of the original capacity goes through.

Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam policy lead for the occupied territories and co-author of the NGO's recent report, says the average amount of water available to a Gazan each day is less than what others would use in a single toilet flush.

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Disease without borders: Massive piles of garbage in Gaza also threaten Israel (Times of Israel)

The war has made Gaza a hotspot for infectious diseases, and Israel isn't immune (Haaretz)

The Palestinian water crisis is everybody's problem – Including Israel (Haaretz)