Uncleared piles of trash bring health risks to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip

Описание: (11 Mar 2026)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nuseirat, Central Gaza Strip – 11 February 2026
1. Various of children searching through the trash

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nuseirat, Central Gaza Strip – 16 February 2026
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Alexander De Croo, administrator of the United Nations Development Programme: ++SOUNDBITE STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT AND IS OVERLAID BY SHOT3++
"We are here in a place with a gigantic cost on human lives, which is human-provoked. What we need now is access. This is our only ask. We are capable of doing this. We have the people to do this. We have the financial resources to do this. We have the technical capabilities of doing this. What we need is access.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nuseirat, Central Gaza Strip – 11 February 2026
3. Various of huge piles of garbage

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gaza City, Gaza Strip – 9 March 2026
4. Various of piles of garbage in the streets
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdelsattar al-Batsh, from Gaza City: ++SOUNDBITE STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT AND IS OVERLAID BY SHOT6++
”There is a health crisis in Gaza. Our children are sick. We got sick. We wake up among the germs and we’re suffering. We call on all nations to stand by Gaza to help with this crisis. Summer is also approaching. It’s March now but it will get warmer in a month. There will be heat and germs and smells will come out along with rats and bugs. Even one is affected. Instead of breathing in something air, they breathe in garbage.”
6. Various of piles of garbage on street, people walking pass

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gaza City, Gaza Strip – 12 February 2026
7. Various of children collecting what their families can use from garbage
8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohamed al-Bitar, from Gaza City: ++SOUNDBITE STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT AND IS OVERLAID BY SHOT9++
”This has impacted and harmed all the children. We can’t sleep because of mosquitos, flies, smoke and smells. It's killed us. This used to be a popular area and many people used to come here, but now it’s been destroyed and became a waste dump site with trash piled up as high as five floors.”
9. Various of people and cars moving near huge piles of garbage
STORYLINE:
More than two million people in the Gaza Strip are struggling to protect their health as they live near piles of trash mixed with dirt and debris across the enclave, with limited resources to clear what were once vibrant, densely populated areas filled with bustling markets.

Since a fragile ceasefire began last October, conflict in the region has calmed, but much of the territory remains in ruins with no clear timeline for reconstruction.

Local municipalities and the United Nations Development Program, or UNDP, have been leading efforts to clear out waste and debris, but limited resources are available.

“The Gaza Strip that used to have no piece of trash on the ground, now people sleep next to microbes, germs, diseases, bacteria. Today, everyone is suffering,” said Abdelsattar al-Batsh, a displaced man from Gaza City, who fears the situation will be worse as the weather gets warmer.

UNDP administrator, Alexander De Croo, said UNDP teams on the ground need access to clear the piles of garbage across the Gaza Strip.

De Croo described it as a crisis “with a gigantic cost on human lives, which is human-provoked.”

Footage captured by The Associated Press showed piles of garbage accumulating beside destroyed buildings in Nuseirat, Gaza City and near Netzarim Corridor.

In one area, two boys search through the trash for anything they can use, while children stand atop mounds of dirt, rubble and scattered waste.





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