Extreme heat compounds miseries of Gaza residents amid Israel's war

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.

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, 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, 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.

Temperatures in Gaza this week are forecast above 30 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit) and recent years have brought a series of lethal heatwaves across the Mediterranean as the summer advances.

Insects overwhelm shelters

Gaza's electricity was largely provided from Israel, but this was cut off as soon as the war began along with fuel for the territory's only power station. Diesel to supply private generators was largely exhausted soon afterwards.

Tel Aviv initiated its Gaza war on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance group Hamas conducted an unprecedented operation against Israel.

The Israeli military campaign has levelled swathes of Gaza, destroying most of the infrastructure and killing over 37,600 Palestinians — most of them children and women — according to health authorities in Gaza.

Hamas, in its blitz operation, killed over 1,200 people and seized about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

"Insects and mosquitoes are biting us all night long. I don’t sleep so that I can apply cream on my child, any kind of ointment or cream so he does not get bitten by the mosquitoes. They are scratching all night," said Nsair.