'If we sleep, they bite': Rats and weasels infest camps for displaced Gazans

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In the Gaza Strip, the daily battles are now with rats, weasels, and other pests spreading diseases.

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"When my husband turned on the torch, the weasel ran away. I looked at my daughter's hand, and it was all blood. Everything was bloody."

In the Gaza Strip, left devastated by war, the daily battles are now with rats, urban weasels and other pests spreading diseases.

Aid workers are calling for urgent steps to counter a public health crisis.

Cogat, the Israeli defence body that controls Gaza's crossings, says it is working with international organisations "to address sanitation needs".

Mayaseen was given a tetanus injection in a Gaza City hospital but suffered from days of fever and vomiting. She is now recovering in her family's tent.

Social media feeds have recently shown footage of rats running amok in camps for displaced families, and of newborn babies, the sick and elderly after rodents have attacked them.

One grandmother with nerve damage to her feet caused by diabetes has spoken of having parts of her toes bitten off.

In a recent survey, cited by UN agencies, rodents or pests were frequently visible in 80% of sites where displaced families are now living, affecting some 1.45 million people.

Rodents can harm people through bites and scratches as well as their urine, droppings and fleas. These can cause respiratory and skin diseases, blood infections and food poisoning.

The local World Health Organization (WHO) representative, Dr Reinhilde Van De Weert, says the new infestations are "unfortunately, the predictable consequence of a collapsed living environment".

More than six months after the US brokered a Gaza ceasefire deal, it has failed to deliver hoped-for improvements in the humanitarian situation and progress appears to be stuck.

There are still regular deadly airstrikes in which Israel says it is targeting Hamas. Hamas, which triggered the Gaza war with its deadly assault on Israel and mass hostage taking in October 2

Source: BBC

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