Health conditions in Gaza remain critical as the Israeli occupation, despite the ongoing so-called ceasefire, continues to undermine the provision of health services and access to care. Over recent weeks, health workers have recorded a rising number of infectious disease cases, with children, older people, and those with pre-existing health conditions at particular risk of further complications.

Dr. Ahmed Muhanna from Al-Awda Hospital told The New Arab that “a widespread increase in infections has been observed, particularly among children.” Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya of Al-Shifa Hospital added: “The danger lies in the weakened immunity of people in Gaza due to famine, malnutrition, and the lack of necessary vaccinations, which has created a serious threat to patients’ lives.”

“Food, shelter, a protective family, healthcare, and education. Those are the five essential things every child needs,” pediatrician Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan insisted in an interview with the Institute for Palestine Studies (IPS). “And in Gaza, every single one of these has been targeted.”

Some public health experts have described the genocide-created living conditions in Gaza that fuel disease as “wet tent syndrome,” a term referring to the interrelated effects of immune deficiency, infections, and the inability to recover due to the destruction of housing and infrastructure. According to UN sources, at least ten children have frozen to death this winter in tents where most of the Strip’s population has been forced to live during the genocide. Organizations including Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) have repeatedly emphasized the disproportionate impact of Israeli destruction on children and pregnant women – amounting to a premeditated assault on Palestinians’ basic reproductive capacity, according to a new report.

“The destruction of Gaza’s health infrastructure, combined with restrictions on food and medical supplies including baby formula, has created an environment in which the fundamental biological processes of reproduction and survival have been systematically destroyed, resulting in known and foreseeable harm, pain, suffering and death,” the PHR report states.