Gaza Faces Public Health Collapse Amid Rat Infestation & Disease as Israel Blocks Reconstruction

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Israel is continuing daily strikes on Gaza while expanding areas under its control and blocking essential aid from entering the besieged territory. An Israeli airstrike on Wednesday killed the son of Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’s chief negotiator taking part in indirect talks with Israel. His son, Azzam, died from injuries from an airstrike in Gaza City. Israel has now killed four of Khalil al-Hayya’s sons since 2018.

In a separate attack on Wednesday, Israel killed three Palestinians from the same family. Hamas condemned the violence as a blatant violation of last year’s ceasefire agreement. Since the ceasefire went into effect, Israel has killed at least 837 Palestinians.

Last week, an Israeli drone strike killed a 9-year-old boy, Adil al-Najjar, who was searching for cardboard to use as fuel for cooking. Relatives of the boy decried the Israeli attack.

SABREEN AL-NAJJAR: [translated] They were collecting cardboard, collecting cardboard so we could bake. We don’t have gas. We collect cardboard to bake. They want to eat. They want to drink. His father is blind. His father does not come or go. He is completely blind. He cannot see it all. Their father leans on these children. They are the ones who hold him, move him and bring him.

SUHAIB AL-NAJJAR: [translated] A little child. He did not damage a tank. He did not make missiles or do anything. He was torn. Isn’t it shameful? Isn’t it shameful what is happening to us? Isn’t it shameful that we bury our children every day right in front of us? Isn’t it shameful? I swear to God, our hearts are breaking for these children.

AMY GOODMAN: This all comes as the Israeli military seizes more territory in Gaza beyond what was agreed to in the U.S.-brokered ceasefire last October. New maps issued by Israel show two-thirds of Gaza is now effectively under Israeli control.

We go now to the Gaza Strip, where we’re joined by Eyad Amawi. He’s a representative of the Gaza Relief Committee, coordinator for local NGOs based in Gaza. He recently published a report detailing how Gaza is facing a, quote, “environmental and biological apocalypse.”

Eyad, thanks so much for joining us. Why don’t you describe what you are talking about is happening on the ground in Gaza?

EYAD AMAWI: Firstly, thank you so much, Amy, for hosting me again, Democracy Now!, your network.

Yes, we are not speaking only about bombardment, something that happened also before one hour; also they hit another target in Gaza town. We are speaking about systematic transformation of life into something unlivable. What’s happening is no longer just bombardment or physical destruction. It is the collapse of every essential condition required for human survival: water, food, health, dignity, shelter, safety, everything.

So, when we talk about our new report about spreading infectious environment and the transformation everything to collapsation, we depend of our field reports, found that more than 59 percentage of our people suffer from insufficient drinking water. And more than 55 are uncertain whether the water they consume is safe or no. And also, nearly 94 percentage of families report food spoilage. Rodent infestation also, Amy, has become widespread inside shelter due to the environmental collapse.

So, when we talk about the most alarming findings came from a recent field survey examining the relationship between rodent infestation, water scarcity and displacement concern inside Gaza, scientifically, we are now facing what can be described as a compound environmental-epidemic crisis. The survey revealed that the overwhelming majority of displaced families are living with severe rodent infestation inside tents and shelters. Food is also contaminated. Shelters are damaged. Water is stored under unsafe conditions also. And rodents have become part of children’s daily environment. There is no longer simply sanitation issue. It’s evidence of the collapse of the most basic conditions necessary for human life.

We talk about continuity for destruction of the environment, and also we and my people sieged just in the shrinked area. The Israeli forces still control more than 60 percentage of Gaza Strip area. You can imagine what’s the meaning of a project over the infrastructure remains in the western part of the Gaza.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Eyad, could you also talk about the role — you point to it repeatedly in the report — the blockade being responsible for many of the horrifying conditions that you describe on the ground in Gaza? Could you tell us about the nature of this blockade, what kind of aid is getting in and what kind of material is considered, quote, “dual use,” and is therefore banned from entering Gaza?

EYAD AMAWI: Yes, it’s very important two questions. Living inside our environment, it continuously produces disease. It’s a generator for disease. So, when we talk about fixing infrastructure, we need basic materials that can help us to rebuilding this. So, when they put struggle and restrictions over the materials under the qualification or pretext for double use, they still provide us with the infectious disease and environment by this way.

So, what we are witnessing is the systematic use of deprivation and public health collapse as instrument of collective punishment over our people here. So, when we talk about struggles, yes, the amount of trucks also is reduced. The last April, just they meet 40 percentage of our daily needs for the amount of trucks. And also, when we talk about the stabilizing situation here, just one cross point is open, Karem Abu Salem. And when we talk about our needs after they completely destroyed Gaza, we need more, 600 and more, and more basic materials like cement and iron and some basic materials that help us to resume our partially normal life in Gaza and fixing the sewage network and water network and fixing infrastructure to prevent this environment from causing infectious disease here and within the camps civilian.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Eyad, what about the issue of medical evacuations, a humanitarian corridor, to enable the sickest people from Gaza, and in particular children, from receiving medical help from outside of Gaza? Are there any medical evacuations taking place?

EYAD AMAWI: Yes, Nermeen. When we talk about the illusion I mentioned in my last articles, medical evacuation is still happening just to up to 12 percentage of our daily needs. When you talk about 15,800 people needed to be evacuated from Gaza to have medications, if we calculated by percentage of the daily evacuations by the Israeli restrictions, we need maybe more than three years, up to five years, to evacuate those peoples. So, those people judged to be died before they be having medications. So it’s a very horrible situation here. We cannot live in this infectious environment. And they siege us. They [inaudible] the siege. Under the security clarifications, nothing tangible happened after the ceasefire agreement assigned here in Gaza.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Question of infrastructure in Gaza is concerned, has any rebuilding started? And just to summarize what the U.N. has concluded, among other organizations, 84% of Gaza’s buildings are damaged, 425,000 housing units destroyed or partially damaged, and 55 million tons of rubble that’s blocking municipal trucks. Ninety-two percent of residential buildings are damaged completely or partially. What is being done, first of all, to clear the rubble? And second of all, are there any attempts at rebuilding?

EYAD AMAWI: Yes, it’s the main questions and the main answer for all of this issue: Why the Israelis still preventing the new Palestinian committee to enter in Gaza to launch the rebuilding process and remove rubbles? Until this moment, nothing happened tangibly here, just a little municipal services reopening some roads. And they prevent the municipal engineers from fixing the water, drinking water pipelines, especially in the eastern part that is parallel to the yellow line. You can imagine what’s the meaning of preventing the municipal services to transfer the tons of waste from the middle of the town to the main space in the Rafah area, in the Rafah area that needed our recycling process, under the classification they still occupy Rafah. And there is nothing here for the rebuilding process under the restrictions they impose over all of the Gaza Strip. And we need the cranes and bulldozers. And most of our municipal machinery is destroyed also, so we haven’t the ability to remove rubbles and to reopen main roads to facilitate our daily lives also.

AMY GOODMAN: In Gaza City, Palestinians rallied Wednesday in solidarity with the two detained activists arrested aboard a Gaza-bound flotilla, after an Israeli court extended their detention to Sunday and denied their appeal for release. Protesters waved Palestinian flags, held pictures of the flotilla activists, the Brazilian Thiago Ávila and the Spanish national Saif Abukeshek, who’s also Palestinian. This is a Palestinian civil society activist, Tayseer Muhaisen, praising the activists.

TAYSEER MUHAISEN: [translated] These activists came to bypass the stances of their governments in the world and to say that humanity will not be stopped by the political decisions. Humanity is represented in the act of these humans even if it’s just one person. They embarked on their journey to spread this message. We wish them safety from all our hearts, and the Gaza Strip completely values this step.

AMY GOODMAN: Eyad Amawi, if you can talk about the significance of these solidarity protests? And also, if you can share a message from Gaza for these two detained activists, Saif and Thiago, Thiago whose mother died in the last two days in Brazil?

AMY GOODMAN: Yes. Hopefully, we send our condolences and our sadness for the loss for our great colleagues. Thiago and others who is supporting us have had solidarity for a long time. I mention them and I talk to them for all of their trips they try to break the siege they impose over the Gaza Strip. And the solidarity and the support for the Gaza and Gazan people and children is very important in this moment, because we consider, after they signed the ceasefire, they’ve forgotten Gaza. By those great people, we can increase the pressure over all of the politicians to stop the firing Gaza. Gaza is still living under the selective firing. So, by Thiago and other activists, we have a chance to renew the issue and to increase the pressure and increase the awareness about this catastrophe still ongoing in Gaza. So, yes, we send our solidarity with those great people, and we hope they free them and release them, and also our doctors and our prisoners, Palestinian prisoners, in the prisons from longer time with unknown destination and under the pressure, under psychological pressure also.

AMY GOODMAN: Eyad Amawi, we want to thank you for being with us, representative of the Gaza Relief Committee, coordinator for local NGOs, speaking to us from Gaza.