Gaza Health Crisis: Rats and fleas infest displacement camps as temperatures rise
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Gaza Health Crisis: Rats and fleas infest displacement camps as temperatures rise")
Gaza Health Crisis: Rats and fleas infest displacement camps as temperatures rise Photograph: (Credit: AFP)
A severe infestation of rats and fleas is sweeping through Gaza’s displacement camps as spring temperatures rise. With sanitation services collapsed and waste piling up, health officials warn of a looming outbreak of hantavirus and skin diseases among 1.7 million displaced Palestinians.
As temperatures rises, a new and aggressive threat is emerging from the ruins of Gaza. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians, already enduring years of conflict, are now facing a massive infestation of rats, fleas, and lice that health officials warn is pushing the enclave toward a catastrophic disease outbreak. In Khan Yunis and the Al-Mawasi coastal strip, the soft sand provides little protection. Displaced residents report that large rodents identified by some as highly adaptable Norway rats—are burrowing directly into makeshift tents at night.
"The rodents have eaten through my tent. My children were bitten while sleeping; one was even bitten on the nose," Muhammad al-Raqab, a father, was quoted in news agency AFP. Like many others, al-Raqab now stays awake through the night, keeping watch over his children with a stick in hand.
The infestation is the direct result of a total collapse in sanitation infrastructure. With municipal services paralysed and access to major landfill sites near the eastern border blocked, millions of tons of solid waste and debris have accumulated near residential areas.
According to the UN, 1.7 million of Gaza's 2.2 million inhabitants still live in displacement camps, unable to return home or to areas that remain under Israeli military control despite a ceasefire that began in October 2025. In these camps, "living conditions are characterised by vermin and parasite infestations", the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Action (OCHA) said after field visits in March.
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Hani al-Flait, head of pediatrics at Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza, told AFP his team encounters skin infections such as scabies daily. "The summer season has brought us rodents and fleas," Ghalia Abu Selmi told AFP after discovering mice had gnawed through clothes she had prepared for her daughter's upcoming wedding. "Fleas have caused skin allergies not only for children but for adults as well," she said, sorting through garments riddled with holes inside the tent she now calls home in Khan Yunis.
(With agency inputs)
