GENEVA, September 1, 2026 (WAFA) – The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday voiced concern over the deteriorating water quality, water contamination and ensuing disease risks in the genocide-stricken Gaza Strip ahead of the upcoming winter.
Addressing a hybrid press briefing from Gaza, Reinhilde Van De Weerdt, WHO Representative in the occupied Palestinian territories, stated: “Water quality and water contamination remained a major issue: between January and August this year, over 6,700 water samples had been tested, and microbiological contamination almost tripled, from under six percent in January to over 18 percent in August.”
She noted that “there had been a significant increase in cases of Acute Watery Diarrhea over the same period, when cases nearly doubled. Sewage, waste, and contaminated water would not stay where they were, they would spread into the very spaces where people sleep, cook, and care for their children, furthering the risk and spread of waterborne diseases.”
She warned that standing water would give pests and mosquitoes more places to breed, while damp, flooded tents will become breeding grounds for mold and bacteria, which was a major driver of respiratory infections, especially in young children.
“What was urgently needed was more permanent shelter, sustainable provision of water – both in quantity and quality, and waste management,” she said.
She highlighted the lack of access to essential services for amputees, noting that 6,600 people required long-term care of limb amputations, but prosthetic limbs had not been allowed into Gaza since May 2024, and that as of July 2026, only 12 percent of patients who had lost limbs since October 2023 (4,600) had been fitted with a prosthetic device brought into Gaza by ICRC.
She stressed the need for unimpeded and expedited entry of essential medicines and supplies, including lab materials and prosthetic limbs, at scale into the Strip. “Only that way could the upcoming winter be different from those before,” she said.
Gaza’s health sector has been severely weakened by Israel’s genocide against Palestinians since Oct. 7, 2023.
Israel has destroyed hospitals and health facilities and prevented the entry of medicines, medical supplies and fuel, severely reducing the ability of medical facilities to provide treatment.
Israel has waged a military onslaught on the Strip since 7 October 2023, killing 73,456 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 174,496 others. It has destroyed 90% of the Strip’s infrastructure, with the cost of Gaza reconstruction estimated at $70 billion.
Since the Gaza ceasefire agreement went into effect on October 11, 2025, Israel has killed 1,320 Palestinians and injured 4,385 others. The bodies of 815 slain Palestinians have been recovered during the same period.
Moreover, at least 10,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
K.F.
