MK sportpictured in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, on Aug. 6, 2024. (Photo: Xinhua)" src="https://www.globaltimes.cn/Portals/0/attachment/2024/2024-08-09/d9acf00c-02ff-4a8b-8941-e4792bc62daf.jpeg" />

A child infected with skin disease is pictured in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, on Aug. 6, 2024. (Photo: Xinhua)

 

A child infected with skin disease is pictured in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, on Aug. 6, 2024. (Photo: Xinhua)

 
Layan Mahdi, a four-year-old child, can barely recognize her own face when looking in a mirror, as a rash has spread across her body.

In an attempt to relieve the pain, the blond girl frequently scratches her rash, which only worsens her discomfort, causing her to scream and call for help from her family.

"Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do to make her feel better," Akaber Qudaih, Layan's mother, lamented.

She told Xinhua that her kid was infected with scabies after playing with her neighbors' children in the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

"I went to al-Aqsa Hospital to get medicine for my daughter, but found nothing," Akaber said. "I was forced to use primitive methods to treat my daughter by rubbing her body with cooking oil, but unfortunately it hurts her a lot."

Not only Layan, but her four siblings were also infected with the skin disease, the 38-year-old mother of five complained to Xinhua. "I do not know what should I do to treat my kids. I am afraid of losing them."

Currently living in a tent on the beach of the Deir al-Balah city, Akaber, like most Palestinians in the Strip, was forced to be displaced and move from one place to another to escape from the ongoing Israeli attacks.

"Since I left my home in Gaza City 10 months ago, I have never found a single place that meets basic human housing needs. The worst thing is the lack of water and personal hygiene supplies," Akaber said.

Noaman Nassar, a nine-year-old Palestinian child, suffers from the spread of pimples with white and blackheads all over his body.

"I cannot wear any clothes due to the pain. I cannot help myself scratching my body all the time," the boy told Xinhua. "I go swimming in the sea with my father in a bid to get rid of them, but all the attempts failed, and my pain is increasing day by day."

With limited access to water and sanitation, communicable diseases and skin infections continue to rage across Gaza, according to an update released by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs late July.

Overcrowding of displaced people in areas that lack water, hygiene and a sewage system has already led to the spread of diseases, including skin diseases among children, it added.

The World Health Organization said that 103,385 cases of scabies and lice, 65,368 of skin rashes and over 11,000 of chicken pox had already been registered as of June 30.

Marwan al-Hams, director of Naser Hospital in Khan Younis city in the southern Gaza Strip, told Xinhua that "there is a significant increase in the number of people, including children, men and women, who are infected with the skin diseases."

Al-Hams added that the situation is exacerbated by the shortage of treatments for these conditions, increasing the risk of infections being transmitted to those wounded in the Israeli attacks.

"We can say that Gaza now is witnessing a health disaster," al-Hams said, calling on the international community to help people in Gaza by pressuring Israel to allow medical supplies and equipment to enter Gaza as soon as possible."