(Anadolu)
GAZA CITY, Palestine – The Gaza Civil Defense Agency warned Thursday of the spread of epidemics and diseases in displacement camps in the southern part of the enclave as heat waves intensified.
"The suffering of displaced people in the displacement camps in the southern governorates of Gaza seems to be increasing with the intensification of heat waves,'' the agency said in a statement.
It added this situation "forewarns of the widening spread of epidemics and diseases among them, especially among children and pregnant women."
The agency called on the World Health Organization (WHO) ''to urgently take actions to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees and find alternative places to tents amid severe heat waves in the coming days."
Gaza is experiencing a severe heat wave, with temperatures reaching around 37C (98.6F) during daylight hours on Thursday.
Israel has waged a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.
More than 34,300 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 77,300 others injured amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities.
More than six months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85 percent of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN. (Anadolu)
