Chickenpox is spreading rapidly through Gaza's displacement camps, with around 9,300 cases recorded in just two weeks across more than 130 health facilities, as doctors warn that the real scale of the outbreak is almost certainly larger than the figures suggest.
The UN health cluster attributed the surge to extreme overcrowding in displacement sites, high summer temperatures and declining access to clean water.
More than half the recorded cases were concentrated in Khan Younis governorate. In the same week, health teams recorded more than 18,000 new cases of infectious skin diseases across the Strip, including scabies, head lice and impetigo.
For families living in tents that measure only a few square metres, the medical advice to isolate sick children is simply unworkable.
"They said he has to be on his own, with his own mattress, his own clothes and washing, but where? We are living in a tent and there is literally no space," said Hamada Abu Ghali, displaced in Nuseirat, whose daughter was initially misdiagnosed before a dermatologist confirmed she had chickenpox.
