Alarming rise in diseases in Gaza as Israel continues blockade, warns Oxfam

International relief organisation Oxfam has reported an alarming rise in waterborne diseases across Gaza, adding that if urgent interventions are not made, the health conditions could develop into a deadly catastrophe. 

Oxfam in a statement has said that the spike in disease is a result of the continued Israeli blockade, which has severely restricted the flow of humanitarian aid into the territory.

“Israel has put Gaza under a near total blockade since March 2 of this year stopping all but a trickle of aid. There are no longer any humanitarian aid reserves held by international agencies inside of Gaza,” the statement said.  

As a result, international humanitarian donors and agencies have been forced to accumulate more than 420,000 pallets of aid that now sit in limbo inside warehouses across regions. This covers an area of around 75 hectares, or enough to cover 101 football fields. 

Oxfam stated that the recorded data may not fully capture the scale of the crisis. With most of Gaza’s nearly two million residents cut off from functioning health services, many cases go unreported and untreated.