People in Gaza face ‘inevitable epidemic’

Doctors and aid workers have told Reuters that with a health system on its knees, and no food, water or shelter, people in Gaza face an inevitable epidemic.

"The perfect storm for disease has begun. Now it's about, 'How bad will it get?'" James Elder, chief spokesperson for the UN children's fund (Unicef), said in an interview on Tuesday.

Between 29 November and 10 December cases of diarrhoea in children under five in Gaza jumped 66 percent, to 59,895 cases, and climbed 55 percent in the rest of the population, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO). 

The UN agency said the numbers were inevitably incomplete due to the meltdown of all systems and services in Gaza because of Israeli bombing.

The head of the paediatric ward at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, Dr Ahmed Al-Farra, told Reuters on Tuesday his ward was overrun with children suffering extreme dehydration, causing kidney failure in some cases, while the rate of severe diarrhoea was four times higher than normal.