People displaced from their homes waiting for food at Al-Shaboura Camp, in the centre of Rafah, Gaza Strip, on 17–18 December 2023. (Photo: WHO)
Clean water is scarce amid a spread of solid waste across the Gaza Strip, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned on Sunday.
“Shelters are severely overcrowded,” UNRWA said in a statement on X. “Clean water is scarce. Solid waste is accumulating. Spread of diseases is on the rise,” it added.
The UN refugee agency said that sanitary conditions are unsustainable in the Palestinian enclave.
“The situation is catastrophic,” it warned. “UNRWA teams continue working to provide critical aid.”
The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.