Gaza’s second front: The battle against disease-carrying rats

Gaza City, Gaza Strip – Beside a mountain of destroyed rubble, Samah al-Dabla lives in a makeshift tent with her children, gripped by a fear that did not exist in their lives before the war: the rats that now invade their shelter.

Samah always keeps her children, three-year-old Mayaseen, and four-year-old Asaad, in sight, and spends most of her day cleaning in a desperate attempt to discourage the rats, but to no avail.

A week ago, she was woken up in the middle of the night by Mayaseen screaming, “Thief, thief”. At first, Samah did not understand what was happening, but when she picked up her daughter, she noticed blood on her hand.

“Her father turned on a flashlight, and we saw the rat running inside the tent … it was very large, like a rabbit.”

The parents realised the animal had attacked Mayaseen and bitten her hand, causing visible bleeding on her body and staining her mattress with blood. The local medical clinic was unable to treat Mayaseen, who was instead taken to central Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital. Despite receiving treatment, the child continues to be terrified by what happened.

“She has become very afraid,” Samah says. “Every night she wants to sleep in my arms. She wakes up terrified, afraid of hearing the sounds of rats near us.” Samah herself struggles to sleep, fearing a repeat of the incident.

Samah adds that she believes the rats have become more aggressive because they “have become used to eating human bodies under the rubble” – more than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.

“The situation is very frightening … rats and mice are everywhere,” Samah tells Al Jazeera, pointing to a pile of rubble in front of her filled with holes that the rodents use as shelters.

“Every day, when evening comes, I feel terror because the rats spread in a horrifying way,” she adds in a tired voice.

“Yesterday, I returned to my tent at night and found them all over that hill … a terrifying scene no human can imagine.”

Samah and her family are forced to live in a tent that barely shelters them, surrounded by rubble in Gaza City [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

Rodent haven

Hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza are living in tents, forced out of their homes by Israeli attacks and forced evacuation orders.

With no sign of reconstruction on the horizon, despite the beginning of a ceasefire in October, they are having to manage with the living situation as it is.

That can mean trying to source clean water, figuring out how to get power and internet, finding food, and dealing with disease-carrying pests like rats – a problem that is only getting worse as the summer approaches.

Samah, displaced from Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, has tried to buy rat poison, but says the prices are too high, and they already barely have enough money to feed their family.

Before the war, her husband worked as a strawberry farmer, and their financial situation was relatively stable. Today, the family’s income has completely stopped, and securing food has become the top priority.

The problem is, any food she does get for her family can attract more rats.

“Many times I’ve brought food from the community kitchen, covered it, and then returned after a short time to find rat droppings on it,” Samah says. “I had to throw it all away … they always ruin our flour bags.”

They also destroy clothes, personal belongings, and even tents. “Rats ate our clothes and bags … the edges of our tent, everything,” she adds.

Despite her continuous efforts to keep things clean, Samah says the rats keep coming. She stresses that the problem is general and not limited to her tent.

She also adds that individual attempts by people around her to clear rubble sometimes lead to more rodents spreading into the surrounding areas.

“Everyone around me is suffering … neighbours, relatives … everyone is complaining because of the rats … every time they clean a place, the rats come to us … the issue needs an organised official effort to control them.”

The arrival of summer is expected to worsen the crisis, along with the spread of insects and mosquitoes.

But the biggest fear remains the rats, whose numbers have increased recently.

Samah and those around her believe the solution requires collective intervention, with municipalities and institutions urgently stepping in to remove rubble and provide pest control materials and poisons to eliminate the rodents.

There is little sanitation in Gaza, providing rats and other pests an environment in which to thrive [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

Difficult to confront

Dr Ayman Abu Rahma, director of preventive medicine at the Ministry of Health, describes Gaza as a “health hazard environment” that has led to an unprecedented spread of rodents.

He attributes this to three main reasons: accumulated waste, destruction of sewage infrastructure, and the presence of rubble and decomposing bodies beneath it.

Abu Rahma explains that there has been a steady increase in emergency and primary care cases as a result of bites, especially among children and the elderly. Diabetic patients are particularly vulnerable, as they may not feel bites, leading to severe complications.

He adds that rats also transmit diseases through urine and waste, causing fever and other symptoms.

Gaza Municipality officials say the situation is worsened by the Israeli ban on importing pest-control materials, including a poison previously used for rodent control, and that efforts to find alternatives have been unsuccessful.

Waste management problems are also worsening, with Gaza City’s main landfill containing about 300,000 cubic metres (10.5 million cubic feet) of waste, creating a breeding ground for rodents in a densely populated area.

Officials are exploring converting waste into organic fertiliser, but solutions remain limited due to the destruction of much of the equipment the municipality would need for such a project in the war.

Basel al-Dahnoun already suffered from several health problems when he was bitten on his foot by a rat [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

Health problems

With few solutions to the problem, Palestinians in Gaza are suffering.

Basel al-Dahnoun was already suffering from multiple diseases before a sudden rat bite added to his pain.

The 47-year-old says he was returning from a dialysis session at hospital, when he fell asleep exhausted.

He later woke up feeling a slight sting in his foot. His wife noticed a rat inside their tent, turned on an electric torch, and told him that his foot was bleeding heavily.

“I looked at my foot, and the mattress and mat were full of blood … then my wife turned and saw the rat and chased it away … that’s when I realised the rat had bitten my foot,” Basel tells Al Jazeera while sitting in his wheelchair inside his tent.

“Because of my illness, I have gradually lost sensation in my limbs, which is why I did not feel the rat bite,” he adds.

Basel, who suffers from kidney failure, diabetes, and severe eyesight problems that have left him barely able to see, was immediately transferred to hospital, where he was treated.

“It is known that wounds in diabetic patients heal with difficulty and may worsen,” he says. “Doctors took samples from my heel and toes … to check for infection … and unfortunately, surgery was scheduled within two days because of the wound.”

Since that night, Basel has lived in constant fear for himself and his four children, constantly checking on them with his wife despite his limited physical ability.

“All night I hear the rats outside the tents trying to break in or tear the canvas … I hear them even when I am lying down,” he says.

In the camp where Basel lives, there is no infrastructure, and no separation between sleeping, cooking, sewage, or waste areas. This environment has allowed rodents to thrive.

“I want anyone to come and film here at night … the numbers are huge, not just one or two rats … we try to fight them with sticks and brooms, but there is no poison or any real solution.”

“I am mentally exhausted … truly exhausted,” Basel says. “I did not ask for money … nothing … I just want to live in stability … in a clean place … this is not life.”