news.un.org
2026-05-29
"The experiences of the desperate parents I met this past week can illustrate this better than I could," UNICEF Communication Specialist, Salim Oweis told journalists attending the bi-weekly humanitarian briefing at the UN in Geneva.
Among them is Hind who hasn't slept ever since her daughter Masa, 4, was bitten by a rat during the night.
They are sheltering in a building "where sewage water leaks through the ceilings, and rodents crawl through the cracks in the building and climb the exposed pipes."
Agony and defeat
Another mother, Amani, is caring for her daughter Lemar, 7, who has lesions and sores on her head, back and legs from a bacterial infection.
"Amani tries to clean her wounds each day with the little, hard-to-get, clean water she has, as her daughter screams in agony," he said.
Meanwhile, Abdel Aleem and his family have layered sandbags around the outside of their tent to ward off rats who "simply chew through it" as "stopping them is futile."
Both he and his eight-month-old son Ahmad, as well his pregnant sister-in-law, were already bitten in recent weeks.
Parents feel helpless
Gaza: 26 killed over Eid holiday, UN rights investigators report by news.un.org/