'All These Rashes': Chickenpox Surges in Gaza Camps Amid War

Eight-year-old Ruba Saadeh is confined to the tent she shares with her family in Gaza, her body covered in inflamed red blisters as chickenpox sweeps through the overcrowded displacement camps. Doctors and families report a surge in the highly contagious disease in recent months, driven by the war that has forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into cramped conditions lacking basic hygiene.

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The doctor told us she needs daily cleaning and should be isolated for 20 days. But how can we isolate her? We all live in one tent.

"The doctor told us she needs daily cleaning and should be isolated for 20 days," Ruba's 19-year-old sister, Alaa, told AFP. "But how can we isolate her? We all live in one tent." UNICEF data indicates that health officials recorded over 9,300 suspected chickenpox cases in Gaza by early July, with a high concentration in Khan Yunis, the strip's most densely populated area.

Raed Abdel Karim Abu Sariya, a dermatologist with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, explained that the lack of space to isolate patients is fueling the spread. "Chickenpox patients must be isolated because the disease spreads through respiratory infection," he stated. However, in Gaza's camps, where families of 10 to 20 people often share a single tent, separating the sick from the healthy is virtually impossible.

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Chickenpox patients must be isolated because the disease spreads through respiratory infection. But in Gaza's camps, he said, separating the sick from the healthy is virtually impossible.

Compounding the problem are the unsanitary conditions. AFP footage shows stagnant pools of garbage-filled water surrounding makeshift shelters, and children walking barefoot. Alaa blames the outbreak on "overcrowding in the tents, and the fact that we only get water once a week, and it's salty and not clean." The family also struggles to obtain basic cleaning products, turning a manageable childhood illness in wealthier nations into a severe public health challenge in Gaza.

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Overcrowding in the tents, and the fact that we only get water once a week, and it's salty and not clean.

For families like the Saadehs, basic precautions have become luxuries. "What did we do to deserve living like this?" Ruba questioned, referring to her rashes. "I used to shower every day. Now there is no soap, no shampoo, no detergent... We live in tents, and I can't sleep because of the rats." Medics emphasize that the outbreak highlights the growing public health crisis facing Gaza's displaced population, where preventing and treating infections has become exceedingly difficult.

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What did we do to deserve living like this? We have all these rashes. I used to shower every day. Now there is no soap, no shampoo, no detergent... We live in tents, and I can't sleep because of the rats.