Abdul Rahman Abu Al-Jidyan was born in Gaza in September 2023. Like 90% of Gaza’s population, the little boy and his family have been displaced multiple times since the war began in the month following his birth. Then, a few weeks before his first birthday, baby Abdul Rahman developed a fever and began vomiting. He was diagnosed as Gaza’s first polio victim in 25 years.

Polio is a highly contagious disease that thrives on misery, of which there is plenty in Gaza. As of 3 June 2024, Israel has destroyed five water and sanitation sites every three days since the start of the war, according to a July report published by Oxfam. What possible military necessity justifies such catastrophic destruction that punishes the entire Palestinian population of Gaza indiscriminately? Israeli bombardment, the report details, has destroyed 70% of Gaza’s sewage pumps, all of Gaza’s wastewater treatment plants and Gaza’s two main water quality testing laboratories.

Unsurprisingly, communicable diseases are rising dramatically in this environment: close to a million cases of acute respiratory infections, over half a........

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