By Countercurrents Collective
A dire environmental disaster looms over Gaza, as the streets of the northern Strip become graveyards for countless Palestinians killed in relentless Israeli airstrikes, warned Mohammed Abu Afash, Director of the Medical Relief Organization in Gaza.
Unretrieved bodies, abandoned amid the chaos, now rot in the open. The haunting scene is worsened by stray animals feeding on the corpses, creating an ominous health crisis that threatens to engulf the besieged region.
Israeli snipers are firing upon aid workers who try to retrieve the bodies.
The humanitarian crisis deepens as hospitals, already battered by bombings, are left without surgeons to tend to the wounded. Medical staff face crippling shortages of supplies, with access to northern Gaza blocked and healthcare workers themselves targeted by Israeli forces.
Abu Afash’s grim message paints a picture not just of suffering but of an unfolding catastrophe with devastating human and environmental consequences.
“People are Hungry, Cold and Traumatised” in Northern Gaza: UN Official
UNICEF communications specialist Rosalia Bollen described the situation in northern Gaza after nearly two months of an Israeli siege as “most dire”.
“Across northern Gaza, including Gaza City, the situation is very difficult for hospitals that lack medical supplies and medicines and doctors, but also for the people who are still there,” she said.
After driving around the area with colleagues last week, Bollen said she saw some market activity in improvised stalls but said very few had any food.
“The little that is available is canned food. The people are hungry, cold and traumatised. A risk of famine alert was issued last month but there haven’t been any supplies entering most northern parts of Gaza, so the situation will further deteriorate for the families there,” she said.
“The children I meet with are all hungry.”
17 December 2024
Source: countercurrents.org