Samah al-Daabla, mother of four-year-old Mayaseen, told the BBC: "We woke up to the sound of her screaming at 2am. When my husband turned on the torch, the weasel ran away. I looked at my daughter's hand, and it was all blood. Everything was bloody."
In the Gaza Strip, already devastated by war, the daily battles are now with rats, urban weasels and other pests spreading diseases. Aid workers are calling for urgent steps to counter a public health crisis. Cogat, the Israeli defence body controlling Gaza's crossings, says it is working with international organisations "to address sanitation needs."
Mayaseen received a tetanus injection at a Gaza City hospital but suffered days of fever and vomiting. She is now recovering in her family's tent. Social media feeds have recently shown footage of rats running amok in camps for displaced families, and of newborns, the sick and elderly after rodent attacks. One grandmother with nerve damage from diabetes has spoken of having parts of her toes bitten off.
A recent survey, cited by UN agencies, found rodents or pests frequently visible in 80% of sites where displaced families now live, affecting some 1.45 million people. Rodents can harm people through bites, scratches, urine, droppings and fleas, causing respiratory and skin diseases, blood infections and food poisoning.
Dr Reinhilde Van De Weert, the local WHO representative, says the infestations are "unfortunately, the predictable consequence of a collapsed living environment." More than six months after the US brokered a Gaza ceasefire deal, it has failed to deliver hoped-for humanitarian improvements, and progress appears stuck. Regular deadly airstrikes continue, with Israel saying it targets Hamas - which triggered the war with its October 2023 assault and mass hostage-taking - and Hamas has not committed to disarming.
No reconstruction has taken place. Gazans do not yet have any of the 200,000 caravans Palestinian officials say they need as temporary homes. With raw sewage water running through many overcrowded campsites, they have become breeding grounds for rodents. In warmer spring weather, the animals thrive in huge rubbish piles accumulated next to tents.
Many parents say they keep vigil at night to protect their children and belongings. "We cannot sleep! If we sleep, they bite the children and disturb us. There are so many weasels and rats - an abnormal number," says Rizq Abu Laila, who lives next to a rubbish dump in Gaza City with his four young children, one of whom has cancer. "They go in the rubbish and fight because there are so many of them. I swear we can't endure it. The rats have torn our clothes and eaten our flour. There are mosquitoes and foul smells. We call on international institutions to help us."
UN agencies say they are working on pest control, drainage and sanitation. "What is needed is a very large-scale campaign to deal with the waste and rubble problems across Gaza," says Ettie Higgins, Unicef's deputy representative for Palestine in Deir al-Balah. "Pipes have been destroyed, and treatment facilities have been destroyed, so we are trying to scale up our support to manage the wastewater and sewage."
Humanitarian workers want more heavy lifting equipment and spare parts for existing machines to clear rubbish, plus access to Gaza's major landfill sites in eastern parts of the strip now under full Israeli military control. Ultimately, replacing damaged facilities will require Israel to allow entry of vital supplies from chemicals to pipes, which it currently restricts for security reasons, saying they could be used by Hamas for weapons.
In a statement to the BBC, Cogat says it "works in cooperation with the UN and the international community to enable a response in the fields of sanitation and essential infrastructure," including coordinating waste removal, facilitating equipment entry, and truck and tanker access for aid organizations. Cogat says it has recently allowed nearly 1,000 rat traps and almost 10 tons of pesticides into Gaza.
Some pest sprays have been used in tent camps to combat the menace. According to the WHO, there have been reports this year of some 111,500 cases of disease or infestation due to external parasites, including scabies caused by mites, lice and bed bugs. More than four-fifths of households in Gaza report skin infections and rashes. Locals foresee that when summer comes, all pest numbers are likely to rise, increasing health hazards.
"I am now in a house with just the outside walls standing. We spend the whole night scratching from fleas on one side and mosquitoes on the other. There are weasels passing by or rats," says Hassan Al-Faqaawi, a father-of-six in Khan Younis. "We need something to deal with it. I don't see any lasting peace at all in Gaza. Life is much harder than it was before. There is no life."