Huge risk of epidemic in Gaza

(Patria) - Calling for a ceasefire, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of the huge risk of epidemics in the Gaza Strip during Israel's attacks.

"There is a huge risk of epidemics. And we are already seeing evidence of that," WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris told Anadolu, stating that the fighting must stop.

She emphasized that a ceasefire is urgently needed.

"The situation is definitely deteriorating, you have a combination of all the factors that will harm people's health," Harris said, noting that the weather is cold and wet and that 90 percent of people are affected by it, and they also don't know where to get food:

"People, of course, are not sleeping. And that harms the immune system."

She added that people are terrified and don't know what will happen.

Harris stressed that there is "no safe place" in the Gaza Strip and that people cannot even get to a hospital when they are injured.

According to her, in the north of the enclave, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society is unable to provide emergency assistance.

"It's simply not possible. So people who are injured there are not receiving care," Harris pointed out.

In Israeli air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since the Hamas attack on October 7, at least 19,667 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed, and 52,586 people have been injured.

The war has left the Gaza Strip in ruins, with half of the housing stock in the coastal territory damaged or destroyed, and about two million people displaced within the densely populated enclave.

It is believed that about 1,200 Israelis were killed in the Hamas attack.