Chickenpox Surges in Gaza's Overcrowded Camps

In Gaza, a chickenpox outbreak is spreading fast through crowded camps where hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to live during years of war. Eight-year-old Ruba Saadeh is one of thousands of children who have come down with the disease. Her body is covered in itchy red blisters, and she spends her days stuck inside the small tent she shares with her whole family. Health officials say more than 9,300 suspected cases were recorded in early July alone, and doctors warn the situation is getting worse.

Ruba's 19-year-old sister, Alaa, explained why it is so hard to help Ruba get better. "The doctor told us she needs daily cleaning and should be isolated for 20 days," Alaa said. "But how can we isolate her? We all live in one tent." When someone has chickenpox, doctors say they must be kept away from others so the disease does not spread. In Gaza's camps, that is nearly impossible.

Raed Abdel Karim Abu Sariya is a skin doctor who works with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. He said chickenpox spreads through the air when a sick person breathes, coughs, or sneezes near others. "Imagine 10, 15 or even 20 people living in a small tent. Where can they isolate a patient?" he said. He treats child after child with the telltale rash every day outside a local medical center.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, Louise Wateridge, said the worst-affected area is Khan Younis in southern Gaza. "That's the most densely-populated area in the Gaza Strip," she said. "Families are sheltering almost on top of each other." Videos from Gaza City show dirty, stagnant pools of water mixed with garbage sitting near makeshift shelters. Children walk barefoot through the muddy ground between rows of tents.

Alaa said the family gets water only once a week, and even that water is salty and not clean enough for washing. The family also has trouble finding basic cleaning supplies like soap and detergent. "We have been living through three years of war. My father is unemployed, and we cannot afford to buy cleaning materials," she said. Without soap or clean water, it is very hard to stop diseases from spreading.

Ruba herself described what her life is now like compared to before. "What did we do to deserve living like this?" she said. "We have all these rashes." She added that she used to shower every day but now has no soap, shampoo, or detergent, and cannot sleep because of the rats. Her words paint a picture of how painful and difficult daily life has become for children in the camps.

Chickenpox is usually a mild illness for children in countries with good healthcare and clean living conditions. But in Gaza, the lack of space, clean water, and medical supplies makes it much harder to treat and contain. Doctors say the outbreak shows just how serious the public health crisis in Gaza has become. Wateridge noted that chickenpox is only one of many diseases spreading through the camps, including respiratory infections, diarrhea, skin diseases, scabies, fleas, and lice.

Gaza's healthcare system has been badly damaged by more than two years of war between Israeli forces and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Israel has targeted some medical facilities, saying they were being used to hide fighters. As a result, hospitals are running very low on supplies and staff. "There's an increasing number of children that are requiring hospitalisation, but this is while Gaza's health system is on the brink of collapse," Wateridge warned.

International aid groups have repeatedly called for more medicine and supplies to be allowed into Gaza. Wateridge said that fixing the chickenpox outbreak means fixing the deeper problems behind it. "When we're talking about chickenpox or any of these diseases it's not gonna go away unless you solve the causes, the root causes of the situation," she said. She also stressed that people need real space to live — not floors shared with rats.