Tents and shelters for Palestinians displaced by conflict are pictured erected at a make-shift camp along the beach near the seaport in the west of Gaza City on July 19, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Geneva: Oxfam International warned that the incidence of waterborne diseases in the Gaza Strip is dangerously increasing and could turn into a deadly catastrophe.
The organization said in a press release that Israel's deliberate denial of humanitarian aid to Gaza has significantly increased the incidence of diseases by between 101 and 302 percent in the past three months.
It explained that health data shows that the numbers of Palestinians presenting to health facilities with acute watery diarrhea have increased by 150 per cent, bloody diarrhea by 302 per cent, and acute jaundice cases by 101 per cent.
This surge of disease can quickly turn deadly especially as Palestinians living in Gaza have been deprived of enough food, water, shelter, and adequate healthcare for over 21 months, Oxfam added.
Israel has put Gaza under a near total blockade since March 2 of this year stopping all but a trickle of aid, the organization said noting that there are no longer any humanitarian aid reserves held by international agencies inside of Gaza.
Oxfam noted that these figures, while alarming, do not reflect the true scale of the crisis, as most of the besieged Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, numbering approximately two million, lack access to the few health facilities that remain operational.
