DUBAI: Eight months into a ceasefire that has failed to stop Israeli attacks or fully open Gaza’s borders, the 2.1 million Palestinians inside the besieged enclave are entering a summer that aid agencies warn could accelerate an already unfolding public health catastrophe.
As summer temperatures soar in Gaza, more than 1.9 million Palestinians displaced by the war, about 90 percent of the population, remain in overcrowded makeshift tents, where access to basic services remains limited.
Aid agencies said plastic and fabric structures that absorb heat and provide no ventilation or insulation have become incubators for the parasites, rodents and infectious disease now spreading across displacement sites.
UNRWA warned last week that Gaza’s humanitarian crisis could deepen as Israel expands military control beyond the “Yellow Line” to as much as 70 percent of the territory in a move likely to trigger large-scale displacement, worsen overcrowding and further restrict humanitarian access.
“Most internally displaced people in Gaza currently live in uninhabitable tents made of fabric or plastic sheets. The plastic sheets cause several negative health consequences, including skin rashes due to overheating inside the plastic tents,” Sally Saleh, head of emergency in Gaza at Medical Aid for Palestinians, told Arab News.
“The temperature inside the tents is often much higher than outside and the ventilation is incredibly poor as there are no sufficient windows. This is also the perfect environment for parasites.”
Medical staff reported a surge in heat-related illnesses, dehydration and skin infections, particularly among children.
Displaced families are left exposed to mounting waste, contaminated water and poor hygiene after almost two years of war have devastated 90 percent of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure, according to the World Bank, the EU and the UN.
Garbage piling up around overcrowded camps amid restricted landfill access and crippled waste management systems is creating fertile conditions for pest and rodent infestations and disease outbreaks.
Palestinian children play at an orphanage camp in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Feb.12, 2026. (AP Photo)
The Palestinian Ministry of Health has recorded more than 70,000 cases of ectoparasitic infestations across Gaza in 2026 alone. More than 80 percent of over 1,600 displacement sites assessed in mid-April reported frequent sightings of rodents or pests, according to UN reports. Skin infections or rashes were reported in nearly two-thirds of sites, lice in more than 65 percent and bedbugs in more than half.
At MAP’s Solidarity Polyclinic in Deir Al-Balah, which serves more than 77,000 displaced residents, scabies accounted for about 30 percent of all identified infectious disease cases in April, alongside acute watery diarrhea and acute respiratory infections.
Aid restrictions, despite the Oct. 10 ceasefire, have left Gaza facing critical shortages of medical supplies, overwhelming war-damaged hospitals already struggling to treat growing numbers of patients. Only 18 of the Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially operational, according to the World Health Organization.
“We are seeing ectoparasitic infections increasing significantly in Gaza among children, such as scabies, lice and impetigo. The medications needed to treat these ectoparasitic conditions are not available nor affordable, so we unfortunately are regularly unable to provide the treatment that is desperately needed,” Saleh told Arab News.
Clean water shortages are further exacerbating an already worsening health crisis.
Most households, according to UN data, are unable to meet the minimum threshold of six liters of water per person per day for drinking and cooking.
Laureline Lasserre, humanitarian affairs manager for Gaza at Medecins Sans Frontieres, said the deprivation of water and sanitation is at the root of conditions that the organization treats daily, yet are entirely avoidable.
Waterborne diseases such as diarrhea affected one in four people surveyed by MSF between May and August 2025.
“That is a huge proportion that affects especially children and has severe impacts on pregnant women, those breastfeeding, or those who have just given birth. It can create dehydration and a cycle of malnutrition,” Lasserre told Arab News.
She added that skin diseases, which accounted for almost 18 percent of MSF’s primary healthcare consultations in 2025, continue to spread because people lack the water needed to properly wash their clothes and bedding. “It becomes a perpetual cycle,” she said.
Lasserre described “undignified conditions” where people “lack access to enough water to maintain bodily and household hygiene.”
Hygiene items such as soap, disinfectant, diapers and menstrual products have been unavailable or scarce, and remain expensive.
In displacement camps, families dig makeshift latrines in their tents or have to share one with many others; they fill up quickly and are often too close to boreholes, contaminating groundwater.
“This creates destructive conditions of life on top of not being able to access proper healthcare and living in overcrowded makeshift shelters.”
In an April 28 report, MSF documented how Israeli authorities have been deliberately depriving Palestinians in Gaza of water as an “integral part of Israel’s genocide.
“This deprivation of access to water is part of the creation of destructive conditions of life. You cannot dissociate the deprivation of access to water, sanitation and hygiene, and the deprivation of access to healthcare; all of those compounded make things absolutely unlivable for the population,” Lasserre told Arab News.
Around 80 percent of the population relies entirely on water trucks, often requiring long journeys with jerrycans or plastic containers in extreme heat to collect water.
“This is not easy if you’ve been injured, which is a lot of people in Gaza, or if the people in your family who are in good health are not there or busy with survival tasks,” Lasserre told Arab News, adding that it poses safety risks for children, who end up being tasked to collect water.
The continued Israeli strikes on Gaza despite the ceasefire are hampering aid and water distribution, delaying infrastructure repairs and further complicating daily life for residents.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza reported at least 1,005 people killed since the ceasefire. Both Hamas and Israel trade blame for the ceasefire violations.
Negotiations on a second phase of the peace plan — which envisions Hamas disarmament, Israeli troop withdrawal and new governing structures — remain paralyzed.
Since since the ceasefire started, only 52,129 aid trucks have entered Gaza out of the 144,000 allocated, which represents only 36 percent of what was agreed, according to the UN.
Humanitarian organizations warn that aid entering the enclave is insufficient to meet the population’s needs.
“Medications are at very, very low stock in Gaza, and there is a restriction on the entry of those materials,” Saleh told Arab News. “Even if some materials are entering Gaza, we are talking about a huge gap between what is entered and what people actually need. We are regularly unable to provide the treatment that is desperately needed.”
Palestinians play football on a pitch amid destroyed buildings in Gaza City, June 13, 2026. (Reuters)
Yousef Al-Asmar, MAP’s Medical Programs Lead in Gaza, said the situation has not improved after the ceasefire as Gaza continues to face restrictions on dual-use items, including equipment, fuel, spare parts for generators and other electrical components needed to keep hospitals working.
“Stocks of essential medicines, trauma supplies and surgical consumables are critically low, with some basic items such as gauze and needles already exhausted. These constraints are directly impacting ICU services, dialysis departments, operating theaters and laboratory functionality,” Al-Asmar told Arab News.
Rising food and fuel prices, coupled with reduced purchasing power, have further strained household resources and coping mechanisms.
“There is food entering via the commercial corridor, however it is mainly carbohydrates which affect the overall nutrition status of children,” Saleh told Arab News.
“The food available is very expensive and cannot be afforded by the majority of people. People need protein and vegetables to stay healthy.”
With summer expected to worsen Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, children are most affected at the health and psychological level.
“Children frequently wake during the night because of rodents moving through shelters or biting sleeping individuals,” Saleh said. “Most children are showing signs of severe trauma and PTSD.
“Many displaced families report fear, sleep disturbance, anxiety and distress because how difficult life has become for them.”
