Europa Press and AFP

The newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, August 3, 2024, p. 18

New York, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) confirmed yesterday that there have been around 40,000 cases of hepatitis in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, compared to 85 diagnoses of hepatitis A before October 7. The report estimates that between 800 and 1,000 new patients with the disease appear each week.

The agency’s health programme manager for Gaza, Ghada al Jadba, warned that the hepatitis outbreak is spreading because Displaced families live in unsanitary conditions, in overcrowded camps and shelters.

They lack clean water, soap and a sewage system. This crisis is greatly complicating our ability to provide them with adequate assistance.lamented Al Jabda. Hepatitis is the second infectious cause of death in the world, with 1.3 million deaths a year, according to the World Health Organization.

Unreasonable increase in settlements in Palestine

Meanwhile, a report by the European Union (EU) representative in the Palestinian Territories reported that 2023 saw a record increase in Israeli settlements in the West Bank reoccupied since the Oslo Accords and the highest number of building permits were issued in 30 years.

The situation is expected to worsen in 2024 as a result of the current situation.the EU delegation said in a message on the social network X.

Permits for 30,682 housing units were approved in 2023, the highest level since 2012, the agency said. The EU has repeatedly called on Israel not to continue its colonisation policyhe pointed.

Some 490,000 settlers live in the reoccupied West Bank, home to some 3 million Palestinians, and there are also settlements that are illegal under Israeli law because they were created without building permits, the EU report said.