ActionAid Ireland has said a hospital in northern Gaza is having to turn away potential blood donors, despite a huge demand for blood supplies to help the sick and injured, because volunteers are so weakened from malnutrition. Despite facing appalling personal circumstances, many people selflessly responded to Al-Awda Hospital’s call-out for blood donations, but with the whole of Gaza at high risk of famine, many were deemed too unwell to undergo the process.
Dr Mohammed Salha, acting director of Al Awda Hospital, which is run by ActionAid’s partner Al-Awda, said: “Frankly, there is a shortage in the quantities and units of blood that are being [donated] because people are suffering from malnutrition, specifically in the northern Gaza Strip.”
He added: “Blood tests are carried out on people who come to donate and there is a large percentage of [people who come to donate blood] who are [already] suffering from malnutrition, so blood units are not drawn from them to use as donations for the wounded and sick. Frankly, malnutrition is widespread, specifically in the northern Gaza Strip. For over five months, no vegetables, fruit, or meat have been brought into the northern Gaza Strip.”
The hospital – which is one of just 16 that is partially functioning across Gaza – is also seeing many cases of people with infections and diseases because of the catastrophic and inhumane conditions people are being forced to live in.
Dr Salha said: “In addition to the spread of many skin diseases… there are thousands of [people who] have come to the hospital here and the hospitals operating in the northern Gaza Strip [who are] suffering from viral hepatitis.”
A toxic combination of intense overcrowding, a lack of water and hygiene products, and the accumulation of waste and sewage in the streets is creating the ideal conditions for diseases to thrive.
Evacuation orders currently cover 86% of Gaza, according to UNRWA, forcing most of the population to cram into an area measuring less than one -sixth of the strip, where they live shoulder to shoulder and illnesses are rapidly spreading.
ActionAid Ireland CEO, Karol Balfe said: “It’s no surprise at all that diseases and infections are running rampant in Gaza when people have been forced to live in such appalling and dehumanising conditions, and have barely anything to eat. It’s truly admirable that despite these dreadful circumstances people are still wanting to help one another and support hospital staff by donating blood – even if, devastatingly, they are far too sick themselves to be able to do so.”
Ms Balfe said that ActionAid staff and partners are doing everything in their power to help, including by providing fresh food, hot meals and hygiene kits to people in need, but they face enormous challenges. Currently, 19 trucks carrying ActionAid hygiene and dignity kits are currently stuck in Egypt, waiting to be allowed to cross into Gaza, where demand for them is huge.
She added: “It is imperative that aid access both into and within Gaza is rapidly improved, so that our dedicated colleagues can help more people. Above all, as the horrific death toll from this crisis approaches 40,000, there must be a permanent ceasefire now, before any more people die from Israeli military attacks, starvation or disease.”
The most recent data from the WHO shows a rise in acute respiratory infections, acute watery diarrhoea, acute bloody diarrhoea and jaundice across Gaza, as well as tens of thousands of cases of scabies, lice and skin rashes.
UNRWA said between 800 and 1,000 new cases of hepatitis are being reported at its health centres and shelters across Gaza per week. Alarmingly, six strains of poliovirus have been detected in environmental samples in Gaza, including in sewage flowing between displaced people’s tents, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The WHO is warning there is a high risk the highly infectious viral disease could spread, posing a particular risk to unvaccinated children under the age of five.
The spread of diseases is exacerbated by the fact that people have hardly any water to keep themselves clean, with less than five litres available on average per person for all their needs per day due to the extensive destruction of water facilities from Israeli military attacks. Oxfam said attacks had destroyed or damaged an average of five water and sanitation infrastructure sites every three days since the crisis began – and, just last week, the Israeli soldiers reportedly bombed the main source of drinking water in Rafah, the Tal Sultan Water Reservoir.
People in Gaza also have little or no access to soap and other vital hygiene products. Arwa*, who is displaced with her young children in Gaza, told ActionAid: “I have little ones who are starting to get lice. There is no shampoo or anything to use to wash the children… A rash has appeared on my children, as well as lice and headlice. We need personal care items so we can keep our children clean. We need authorities to provide us with aid. We need clean water…We demand an end to the war so that we can return to our homes and to the clean conditions that we had.”
At the same time, hazardous waste and sewage is accumulating in the streets and around people’s tents. More than 140 temporary dumping sites have appeared as a result of Gaza’s two major landfill sites being inaccessible. In a recent assessment, UNDP said Gaza’s solid waste management had totally collapsed, resulting in serious public health consequences including a spike in cases of diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections.
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