Garbage, waste accumulation in Gaza from Israeli attacks deepen health risks

GAZA CITY, Palestine

The accumulation of garbage and waste is threatening the health of Palestinians struggling to survive in difficult conditions in Gaza, which has been under intense attacks by Israel for months.

Due to the inability to provide municipal services, pollution crises caused by garbage and various waste has deepened in Gaza, which has been under Israeli blockade for years and has been subjected to attacks from the air, land and sea since Oct. 7.

Bilal Abdullatif, a young resident of the Al-Shati, or Beach Camp, where refugees live in western Gaza City, said: "Continued ruthless attacks have disrupted municipal work and led to unbearable waste accumulation in the streets and neighborhoods."

Abdullatif voiced concern about the worsening humanitarian and living conditions with the expansion of the environmental and health disaster in the city. "Waste has spread everywhere, the smell filling the air. It has also led to the spread of insects, rodents, and infectious diseases," he told Anadolu.

Siham al-Kita, 45, who was displaced from the al-Shujaya neighborhood in eastern Gaza, said what is happening heralds a significant health and environmental disaster.

"Waste that was collected, transported, and sorted before the attacks is now accumulating among Palestinians, threatening their health with various diseases," said al-Kita. "Waste causes physical and psychological health problems and many diseases.”

Al-Kita pointed out that due to the lack of medicine and the accumulation of waste around schools, young children have contracted intestinal and skin diseases, as he urged an urgent solution to the waste crisis.

'80,000 tons of garbage and waste have accumulated'

Municipality spokesperson Husni Muhenna described Gaza City as a "disaster."

Muhenna noted that since the beginning of the Israeli attacks, nearly 80,000 tons of garbage and waste have accumulated due to the halt in the transfer of garbage to the main waste storage area located on the eastern border of the city.

He added that the depletion of fuel needed for vehicles and trucks used to collect waste, along with the destruction of the vehicles in recent Israeli attacks, has caused the waste crises in the region.

Ahmet highlighted that since the destructive attacks began Oct. 7, the army has destroyed 90 vehicles belonging to the municipality, causing almost a complete halt to essential services.

Muhenna urged international institutions and organizations to provide machinery, equipment and fuel to continue providing essential services to residents by stopping the destructive attacks.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since an attack by the Palestinian resistance group. Hamas. The ensuing Israel attack has killed at least 29,410 Palestinians and injured nearly 70,000. Less than 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

According to the UN, the Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.

Since its establishment in 1948, Israel, for the first time, has been accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, the highest judicial body of the United Nations, for its war against Gaza.

An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to provide and guarantee humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza.