‘The rat gnawed at my toes’: Rodent infestation overruns Gaza’s displaced
Submitted by Nada Nabil on Fri, 04/10/2026 - 12:10
Palestinians describe nightly attacks by rodents in displacement tents as authorities warn of a worsening public health crisis
Inshirah Hajjaj, 63, was hospitalised after rodents bit her feet as she slept in her tent in Gaza City (MEE/Hani Abu Rezeq)
Off Inshirah Hajjaj was trying to sleep in her tent in Gaza City, ignoring a mouse scuttling near her pillow, when a large rat began gnawing at her toes.
The 63-year-old, who suffers from advanced diabetes that has left her with little sensation in her extremities, did not initially realise she had been bitten.
It was only the following morning that her sister-in-law noticed the wound and was horrified.
“At the time, I thought my foot had simply hit something inside the tent, and I hadn’t felt it,” Hajjaj told Middle East Eye.
“But in the following days, my toes began to swell and turn blue. Then I started waking up to find new wounds.”
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For months, many displaced Palestinians in Gaza have been grappling with a worsening rodent infestation spreading through overcrowded tented shelters amid the Israeli genocide.
Hajjaj is among those forced to fend off rodents that swarm around displacement tents on a near-nightly basis, but she said she never imagined it would come to this.
'Last night, I went to the bathroom and found a large rat in front of me. I was terrified. I started screaming for my relatives to rescue me'
- Inshirah Hajjaj, displaced in Gaza
“I never imagined rats would eat my feet,” she said. “It devoured my body while I slept. It had been eating my feet every day without mercy.”
Around 1.5 million Palestinians out of Gaza’s 2.2 million population are currently living in makeshift shelters, including worn tents, after two years of Israeli bombardment that has destroyed around 80 percent of homes in the strip.
Due to the acute shortage of raw materials and Israel's ban on the entry of construction supplies, displaced families have been forced to build rudimentary sanitation systems, including latrines without sewage networks and barrels buried in the ground.
Stagnant wastewater in these conditions has created fertile breeding grounds for rodents and insects, accelerating their spread across displacement camps.
“I went to a field hospital in Gaza City, where the doctor examined me and said my foot was in the early stages of poisoning,” Hajjaj said. “He confirmed the marks on my toes were the result of a rat bite.”
“How painful it is for a chronic patient with advanced diabetes to have rats feeding on parts of my body at night without me even noticing.”
Inshirah Hajjaj says the experience has left her traumatised (MEE/Hani Abu Rezeq)
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With a rise in rat bites and scratches, doctors in the Gaza Strip have warned that they could have life-threatening consequences, particularly given the severe shortage of antibiotics and medical supplies due to the Israeli siege.
For Hajjaj, she said, the greatest suffering is not only the injury itself but the absence of any refuge or solution as she faces a future with no reconstruction in sight.
“Waste surrounds our tents on every side, and the rubble of bombed houses is everywhere,” she said. “Every day we see dozens, even hundreds of mice spreading through the debris and into the camps.
“Last night, I went to the bathroom and found a large rat in front of me. I was terrified. I started screaming for my relatives to rescue me before I lost consciousness.”
‘Marks of rat teeth’
Hajjaj is not alone in her physical and psychological trauma.
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Hundreds of others have arrived at hospitals with similar injuries, while many more have taken to social media in desperate attempts to draw attention to the infestation.
In the al-Maqousi area of north-western Gaza City, Youssef al-Ustaz endured a harrowing night - but the victim was his infant son, Adam, just 28 days old.
'If our home had not been destroyed, we would have lived in safety'
- Youssef al-Ustaz, Palestinian father
Al-Ustaz woke up in the middle of the night to his infant’s piercing screams. Using his mobile phone's flashlight, he saw the baby's face covered in blood.
“Terror and shock struck me. Suddenly, I found my little child’s face drenched in blood, crying in unprecedented pain,” he told Middle East Eye.
“I searched the tent and found a large rat scurrying under a small table.”
He carried his son and ran to the nearest Rantisi Hospital.
“The doctors were shocked, especially after cleaning the blood and seeing the marks of rat teeth on his small cheek,” he said.
Adam is among hundreds of children treated in Gaza’s hospitals for rat bites, as well as digestive and respiratory illnesses worsened by the widespread infestation.
“I don’t know what this child’s fault is, to be born in a tent made of worn-out fabric and to be vulnerable to attacks by rats,” al-Ustaz said.
“We repeatedly tried to buy rat poison, but it is extremely scarce and prohibitively expensive for displaced families. If our home had not been destroyed, we would have lived in safety, without my child facing creatures that threaten his life every day.”
Marks of a rat bite on the cheek of one-month-old Adam al-Ustaz in Gaza (X)
His frustration reflects the scale of destruction documented by the United Nations.
Jorge Moreira da Silva, executive director of the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), has said Gaza is now covered in more than 60 million tonnes of debris, with clearance expected to take years.
According to UN estimates, each person in Gaza is effectively surrounded by around 30 tonnes of rubble, underscoring the scale of the humanitarian crisis.
Lack of resources
As residents face this invasion of their shelters, the Gaza Municipality continues to receive thousands of complaints daily, yet says the scale of the crisis often paralyses it.
“Despite our efforts to address the rodent problem, such as partial sewage interventions and removing random garbage dumps, we cannot eliminate the problem under current conditions,” Hosni Muhanna, spokesperson for the Gaza Municipality, told MEE.
“The scale of the disaster far exceeds available capacities,” he added.
Muhanna said the rodent crisis cannot be separated from the wider destruction caused by the war.
"The war decimated infrastructure, especially sewage networks. It left over 25 million tonnes of rubble in Gaza City alone, along with 350,000 tonnes of solid waste accumulating in residential neighbourhoods,” he added.
The infestation has also drawn attention at the United Nations.
'After the rat gnawed at my toes, I don’t think I will ever be able to sleep peacefully again'
- Inshirah Hajjaj, Palestinian woman
Last month, Unrwa - the UN agency for Palestinian refugees - confirmed the spread of rodents across displacement sites in its latest situation report on the humanitarian crisis in the Strip.
It added that there was an “urgent need for pest-control materials and chemicals” to address the problem.
Muhanna said the municipality is also unable to carry out interventions on the required scale due to many obstacles, chief among them the closure of crossings and Israeli restrictions on materials.
He added that any meaningful response would require far more than rat poison, including fuel, spare parts, and heavy machinery needed to clear millions of tonnes of rubble and waste.
Back in her tent, Hajjaj fears the experience she had will leave a lasting impact.
“After the rat gnawed at my toes, I don’t think I will ever be able to sleep peacefully again,” she said.
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