Key facts
- WHO said acute respiratory infections in Gaza are 33,000 cases higher than at the same time last year.
- Respiratory infections make up 11% of all consultations in Gaza, the WHO said.
- WHO said nearly a million displaced people in Gaza live in flood-exposed areas, 400,000 of them at extremely high risk.
- COGAT said more than 93,000 tents and over 8,600 trucks of winter supplies have entered Gaza since the winterisation plan launched.
- COGAT said reconstruction equipment will be allowed in only after Hamas is fully disarmed.
- The Israeli military said the Yellow Line aims to protect Israeli civilians and troops and is not intended to harm civilians.
The World Health Organization warned on November 13 of rising respiratory illnesses in Gaza, saying worse is expected after heavy rains flooded tens of thousands of tents housing displaced Palestinians. Acute respiratory infections are 33,000 cases higher than at the same time last year, WHO representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory Reinhilde Van De Weerdt told reporters in Geneva from Jerusalem.
WHO said poor living conditions and severe overcrowding are driving up infections as Gaza's population is squeezed into an ever-smaller area. The crunch has worsened as the Israeli military expands its control by advancing the Yellow Line, a demarcation established under October's US-brokered ceasefire. Van De Weerdt said people are living in more crowded conditions, where the spread of a virus between humans is more likely.
The Israeli military told Reuters the Yellow Line aims to protect Israeli civilians and army troops from threats and that adjustments to its location follow the ceasefire agreement and international law and are not intended to harm the civilian population. The military said it categorically rejects the claim that it operates to deliberately reduce the area available to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, said more than 93,000 tents and over 8,600 trucks carrying tarpaulin sheets, blankets and winter clothing have entered Gaza since the Board of Peace, UN agencies and NGOs launched the winterisation plan. Equipment intended for the reconstruction of Gaza will be permitted to enter only after Hamas has been fully disarmed, it added. Last week COGAT said it had stepped up efforts to improve sanitary conditions before the heavy rain, in coordination with international organisations.