WHO warns winter rains will worsen Gaza water crisis as diarrhea cases surge

The approach of winter and cold rains are set to worsen a public health crisis that already has a firm grip in the embattled Gaza Strip, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

Recent water testing has shown there is a clear deterioration in the quality of water in the Palestinian enclave and diarrhea cases have surged, the United Nations health agency said on Tuesday, noting that the approach of winter threatens to exasperate the situation.

Much of Gaza has been destroyed during Israel’s genocidal war, and it remains under blockade, leaving much of its population without sufficient shelter and exposed to a lack of functioning infrastructure.

“Whilst we fail to provide people with the minimum quantities of water, water quality and water contamination remains a major issue,” said Reinhilde Van de Weerdt, the WHO’s representative in the Palestinian territories.

Potential flooding resulting from winter rains “will [send] the sewage, the waste and contaminated water into the places where people sleep, cook and care for their loved ones,” she warned.

Testing of approximately 6,700 water samples over the first eight months of 2026 indicated that “microbiological contamination almost tripled,” she told reporters in Geneva, speaking from Gaza.

Contamination increased from under six percent in January to over 18 percent in August, the tests showed.

Cases of acute diarrhea have almost doubled since March, jumping from around 27,000 cases to over 48,000, Van de Weerdt noted.

However, the WHO official insisted there is still time to prevent a public health disaster. She called for “unimpeded and expedited entry of humanitarian supplies”.

Materials needed for permanent shelter and sustainable provision of water and waste management are vital, she said. More laboratory supplies are urgently needed to help confirm the causes of disease and better respond to outbreaks.

Israel has been using water access as a “weapon” in Gaza, Doctors Without Borders declared in April. The group pointed to data from the United Nations, European Union and World Bank indicating that Israel had destroyed or damaged nearly 90 percent of water and sanitation infrastructure in the territory.