Yesterday evening, Thursday, the Civil Defense Service in the Gaza Strip warned of the spread of epidemics and diseases in displacement camps in the southern governorates as heat waves intensify.

The Civil Defense Service said, "The suffering of displaced citizens in displacement camps in the southern Gaza governorates seemed to increase with the intensification of the heat waves."

He added that this "forecasts the spread of epidemics and diseases among them, especially among children and pregnant women."

The Civil Defense called on the World Health Organization to “urgently save the lives of hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians, and to intervene to find alternative places for tents, especially as we are facing successive severe heat waves in the coming days.”

He continued: "We also direct our displaced people who are patient in tents to take safety measures as much as possible, drink plenty of water, try to ventilate the place, keep children away from the sun's rays, especially at peak heat times, and be sure to wipe their bodies with cold water constantly."

Gaza is suffering from a severe heat wave. The temperature during the day on Thursday reached about 37 degrees Celsius.

With the beginning of the war on the Gaza Strip, which has continued for the seventh month, Israel pushed the people of the Strip to move south, claiming that it was a “safe area.” However, Israeli bombing, destruction, and killing affected all areas, up to the border crossing with Egypt.

This led to the concentration of about 1.3 million of the Strip’s population of 2.3 million in the city of Rafah, south of the Strip alone, according to government officials in Gaza.

These displaced people suffer from difficult living and health conditions as a result of the war, as these camps lack the most basic necessities of life.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza that has left tens of thousands of civilian victims, most of them children and women, in addition to massive destruction and famine that has claimed the lives of children and the elderly, according to Palestinian and UN data.

Israel continues the war despite the issuance of a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, and despite Tel Aviv appearing before the International Court of Justice on charges of committing “genocide.”