The waste that floods Gaza city city streets creates new health risks, residents say.
Palestinians returning to northern Gaza discovered the once vibrant city, which had been reduced to once toxic wastelands, according to residents and aid agencies.
Shocked by the level of destruction, Gaza residents are calling for action against the sanitation crisis of buildings in the largest city of the enclave, Al Jazeera reported on Monday.
The scene of devastation met people who wanted to rebuild their lives on the north side of the enclave, the focal point of Israel’s military action most concentrated during the war. The dangers posed by damaged buildings are consistent with the lack of public services and streets filled with garbage piles.
Last month’s ceasefire agreement allowed evacuees to rush back north. However, Gaza City remains without water or reliable power.
Tess Ingram of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said the town lacks basic services, such as water and health care.
“They were shocked by what they returned,” she said from Gaza City.
“They wanted their homes, their neighborhoods and their community to spare them, and when they came back here and realized that wasn’t, they kept their 15-month crash. I hoped.”
The family back to North #Gaza is shocked by the scale of the destruction.
UNICEF’s Tess Ingram shares reality on earth and the immeasurable challenges people face. pic.twitter.com/iryrn9asnm
– UNICEF’s Mena – Isolation – ال Defense Forces الأو ❖February 9th February 9th February
Toxic garbage mounds in central regions of the city, including business centres, amplify spread spread of disease.
“The accumulation of waste near hospitals poses serious health risks, primarily disease and epidemics,” says Amin Al-Alia, a nurse at Ahli Hospital.
“It’s extremely dangerous,” resident Ahmed Nasser told Al Jazeera. “I hope it’s removed as soon as possible.”
“The area has become as scary as a haunted forest,” added Majid Bassam, the store’s owner. “It’s full of insects, stray dogs, you’ll name it. It’s a vast area of wasteland.”
Heavy rains and strong winds in Gaza City and further north are exacerbating the suffering.
Due to a lack of shelters, some have resorted to launch fires inside the collapsed building for warmth, reported Hani Mahmoud of Al Jazeera in Gaza City.
“There have been three documented cases of people dying under similar, collapsed buildings recently,” says Mahmoud.
Hannan Balky of the World Health Organization (WHO) described the suffering of people in war-torn enclaves as “beyond understanding” and called for accelerating operations.
The WHO is “ready to expand our response,” but “urgently requires systematic and sustained access to the population of Gaza as a whole, ending restrictions on input of essential supplies. We need to do it,” she said.
Over half a million Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza as Israeli forces partially reopened the Neszarim corridor, splitting Gaza from north to south for travel in late January.
On Sunday, Hamas said Israeli forces had withdrawn from the corridor completely as part of an ongoing ceasefire contract, allowing Palestinians to overcome it without fear of military violence for the first time in more than a year.
