Mice and Weasels Invade Gaza Tents, Biting Children and Spoiling Food

Rodents and insects are harming Palestinians trying to survive in devastated Gaza, where sewage flows between tents, garbage piles up and clean drinking water is unavailable. Mice and weasels are entering tents, biting children and contaminating food, families told the Financial Times.

Maalek Shbari, a Palestinian living with his wife and their two young children in a tent in Mawasi, a crowded, infrastructure-poor camp that hosts hundreds of thousands of refugees along the southern Gaza Strip coast, said: "These large mammals feed on bodies under the rubble and their numbers have increased significantly. They come into the tent and gnaw on our clothes. Every day we have to throw something out."

Lice, fleas and mosquitoes are also spreading in the large refugee camps in Gaza, transmitting diseases and causing skin infections. According to a UN review in April, lice, fleas and mosquitoes are also spreading in the large refugee camps in Gaza, transmitting diseases and causing skin infections. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported in May that about 80% of Gaza's sewage pumping stations had stopped operating, allowing about 40,000 cubic meters of untreated wastewater to flow into the sea each day and wash over areas where families live.