Photo: Collected
As garbage piles up and the heat rises in war-torn Gaza, flies and mosquitoes proliferate in crowded Rafah city and life becomes even more grim for displaced people living in tents.
Last week, temperatures already topped 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), turning the makeshift shelters made from plastic tarps and sheets into sweltering ovens.
On a sliver of land on the outskirts of the far-southern city on the Egyptian border, about 20 of these tents have been erected, all shaded by a large sheet stretched above them.
But the thin, dark cloth is no match for the blazing sun that has sent temperatures rising fast in late April, making it harder to preserve scarce potable water and food.
"The water we drink is warm," Ranine Aouni al-Arian, a Palestinian woman displaced from the devastated nearby city of Khan Yunis, told the media.
"The children can't bear the heat and the mosquito and fly bites anymore," she told the media.
She was holding a baby whose face was covered in insect bites and said that she struggles to find "a treatment or a solution".
Around her, swarms of flies and other insects were buzzing incessantly.
"It's the first time we see so many, because of the pollution and the waste discarded everywhere", said Aala Saleh, from Jabalia in the north of Gaza.
He said sleeping has become nearly impossible inside his tent, "because we wake up from the mosquito bites, and our main concern is to kill these insects".
Amid the heat and unsanitary conditions, he said he worried about "the spread of disease".
Messenger/Sumon
