UN, little girl dies from extreme heat in Rafah: rising temperatures and sanitation crisis for 1.7 million displaced people

The escalation of hostilities in Gaza also impacts the lives of civilians at a hygienic-sanitary level: a little girl died due to the extreme heat in Rafah, because the constant increase in temperatures aggravates the crisis for all the displaced, around 1.7 million of people without adequate housing and basic necessities. The news […]

The escalation of hostilities a Gaza impacts on the lives of civilians also to sanitation level: a little girl died from extreme heat in Rafahbecause the constant increase in temperatures aggravates the crisis for all displacedabout 1.7 million of people without adequate housing and basic necessities. The news was given by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), cited by the agency Reutersin a context of growing concern for conditions of the people living in Gaza, where thousands of families are without food, water and sanitation.

The UN has already launched the alarm on the sanitation crisis in Rafah, destined to worsen with a further temperature increase expected in the next few weeks. The temperature on Friday 26 April reached 40 degrees. “And we are only at the end of April – underlined the spokesperson Stephane Dujarric – our humanitarian colleagues remind us that more than one million people, including men, women and children, are refugee in the area“.

The alarm is raised while the aid shipments to Gaza from Cyprus resumed on Friday evening, a Cypriot source said, with a merchant ship carrying aid donated by the United Arab Emirates tobesieged Palestinian enclave, after a pause following the killing of seven aid workers by Israel. The NGO World Central Kitchen (Wck) suspended aid to review its activity in the Strip after the attack in early April in which 7 volunteers died, blocking shipments to Gaza from Cyprus. An attack that had also pushed other NGOs to suspend the distribution of aid in the Strip. In addition to Wck itself, those who also stopped were American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera), which in turn operated in food distribution, and Project Hope, which managed health facilities in Rafah and Deir al-Balah and guaranteed medical supplies.

Right at Rafah the escalation of the crisis is about to reach one crucial point, with Israel preparing to attack the last Hamas stronghold in the southern Strip, where several hostages may be held on October 7. In recent days the army has amassed dozens of tanks and armored vehicles along the southern border with Gaza, at the Israeli crossing of Kerem Shalomnear Rafah, as reported by journalists who saw the movement of military vehicles.