Sweltering summer weather is worsening conditions in Gaza where nearly all the 2.3 million inhabitants have been driven from their homes by Israel’s military campaign and where there is almost no electricity and little clean water, Reuters reports.

Families living in tents, in crowded shelters in UN schools or crammed into private homes, face the rising summer temperatures without air condition, showers or a functioning health system amid rising rates of malnutrition and disease.

In a school classroom shared as a shelter among different families in Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip, Amal Nsair, 38, is worried that the rising heat and humidity and the increase in mosquitoes and other insects will harm their health.

Her son cannot sleep and she has nothing to cool him except a fan made from cardboard. The family’s home was in Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza Strip, which they fled earlier in the conflict.

“My son’s body is full of heat. In the past I would wash him but I need water. I’m very worried about my husband’s health too. He has lost half his weight from carrying water,” she said.

Opinion

Editorial

GB Assembly’s demand
Updated 21 Jul, 2026

GB Assembly’s demand

THE newly elected Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly last week adopted a unanimous resolution asking the centre to grant the...
Spain’s statement
21 Jul, 2026

Spain’s statement

IT was a one-sided affair for the most part. The FIFA World Cup 2026 concluded in the early hours of Monday for...
Slow death
21 Jul, 2026

Slow death

MANCHHAR Lake, which is situated at the foot of the Kirthar range, was once Pakistan’s largest freshwater body ...
Unmasking stability
Updated 20 Jul, 2026

Unmasking stability

THREE reports last Friday — a widening food trade gap, return to a current account deficit, and the government’s...
Flood data gap
20 Jul, 2026

Flood data gap

HAVING endured one of its worst floods last year — triggered by intense monsoons and compounded by sudden water...
Zero-dose alert
20 Jul, 2026

Zero-dose alert

ALTHOUGH Pakistan recently announced its first National Vaccine Policy, it will take time before the immunity gap ...