A moved woman said UN news Corresponding to Gaza: “In all camps, we suffer from biting insects, especially chips”, adding that “our children suffer from intense pain due to itching and tingling.
“We tried to treat it simple, but good medications are not available at the medical center.”
Although biting insects found in Gaza are not immediately fatal, the presence of rodents, including rats, can increase the risk of propagation of infectious diseases that the Gaza health system may be unable to treat.
Inadequate sanitation
The adequate lack of sanitation, including limited access to clean toilets, general overcrowding while people are trying to find places to live among the Gaza rubble – and the challenges of street waste – amplified the threat posed by rats.
UNRWA teams, the United Nations agency that supports residents of Gaza, have launched intensive cleaning operations as well as environmental and health awareness campaigns. The number of dermatology consultations in health establishments has also increased.
UNRWA workers are actively moving through tents for people displaced to Khan Younis in the southern part of the gaza strip pulverizing pesticides to counter the propagation of insects, fleas and rodents.
Waste not collected in Gaza encourage rats.
UNRWA teams worked in around 50 travel sites in the Khan Younis Mawasi region.
They focused on the locations where there is overcrowding, poor waste elimination, the presence of livestock and the lack of hygiene materials.
“Due to the intense heat and sleep on the sand, we were exposed to dead insects, rodents and mosquitoes,” said a resident by watching an environmental health worker of UNRWA spray insecticides around temporary shelters.
A doctor from the UNRWA environmental health team explains to mothers how to treat insect bites.
Educational sessions
In a neighboring tent, a group of women gathered around awareness -raising instructors of the agency’s environmental health office for an educational session on how to protect themselves against insects and rodents.
Meetings target women, girls and adolescents to familiarize them with how to deal with this health challenge.
Meanwhile, Gaza has continued to fight since the attack on October 7, 2023 of Hamas against Israel precipitated the upsetting conflict.
No humanitarian aid or supply has entered the Gaza Strip since March 2, 2025, due to the total blockade of Israel.
UNRWA says that vital humanitarian supplies, including food, fuel, medical aid and vaccines for children are almost exhausted.
The agency warned that pesticide stocks should run out in a few days in southern Gaza, when they have already exhausted in central areas and north of the band.
