Skip to content Skip to footer

There Are Over 100,000 Cases of Hepatitis B in Gaza, Report Says

Hepatitis B can cause lifetime liver problems, including cancer, and is spread through bodily fluids like blood.

A Palestinian stands on the rubble of destroyed buildings as he looks at the a pool of stagnant water in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 19, 2024.

As humanitarian groups warn that multiple epidemics are likely ongoing in Gaza, one report has revealed that there has been a major uptick of cases of viral hepatitis B, which infects the liver, as sanitary conditions continue to deteriorate and Israel’s genocide rages on.

Haaretz reports that over 100,000 cases of viral hepatitis B have been recorded in Gaza, according to Palestinian Authority health minister Maged Abu-Ramadan. Last year, there were only 85 recorded cases of the infection, meaning that cases have increased by over 1,100 times in the past year.

This potential epidemic, along with the spread of many other diseases across Gaza, is caused by Israel’s unceasing bombings, humanitarian blockade and destruction of crucial sanitary and health infrastructure. Last week, UN agencies reported that the solid waste management system in Gaza has completely collapsed, with a complete lack of access to major landfills causing vast exposure to disease-causing trash and waste.

Hepatitis B is spread through contact with bodily fluids like blood and semen; it is commonly spread from a parent to a child at birth and from injection with contaminated needles. Chronic hepatitis B, or cases that last longer than six months, is the world’s leading cause of liver cancer, and the majority of babies and children who contract it have lifelong infections.

Because hepatitis B is spread through bodily fluids, the reported uptick in cases could be an indication of the extent of the unsanitary conditions in Gaza; humanitarian groups have previously warned of the spread of hepatitis B due to Israel’s blockade on menstrual hygiene supplies like pads. Many have turned to desperate methods, like washing and reusing pads or cutting up old clothes and tents to use as pads.

Officials have been raising alarm about other diseases spreading through the Gaza Strip. Humanitarian groups have been warning for months that the death toll caused by Israel’s disease and starvation campaigns could eventually top the deaths caused by bombings and gunfire.

Last week, the Gaza health ministry declared a polio epidemic in the Strip after samples of poliovirus were detected in wastewater samples across the region. Polio can go undetected in a person’s body, which means that it can be spread easily, while in some people it can cause paralysis. Officials have not yet detected paralytic cases, but disease surveillance is essentially impossible due to Israel’s genocidal assault.

Also last week, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said that there has been an eruption of cases of Hepatitis A, an unrelated virus spread through the ingestion of contaminated food or water, in Gaza.

According to UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA has recorded nearly 40,000 cases of the illness in their facilities in the past 10 months, compared to only 85 cases in the same period before. The agency is recording about 800 to 1,000 new cases weekly.

“Piles of trash are accumulating in the scorching summer heat. Sewage discharges on the streets while people queue for hours just to go to the toilets,” said Lazzarini. “All combined make a dangerous recipe for diseases to spread.”

Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn

Dear Truthout Community,

If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.

We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.

Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.

There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.

After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?

It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.

We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.

We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.

Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We’re presently working to find 1500 new monthly donors to Truthout before the end of the year.

We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.

With love, rage, and solidarity,

Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy