A poor diet, overcrowding, the lack of shelter, clean water and medicine all combine with the stress of war to leave Palestinians in Gaza more vulnerable to disease.

Ramallah, occupied West Bank – The dilapidated tent does not offer much protection against the cold in the winter or the fierce heat in the summer. It sits on a barren patch of land near the city of Ramallah. But it is the only shelter Abdelrahman “Abu Bashar” Ka’abneh and his family have.

AL-MUARAJAT, WEST BANK — It was early on a mid-September day when a group of Israeli settlers arrived at a small Palestinian Bedouin school in the occupied West Bank. In short order, they stormed the building. Armed and emboldened, the settlers threw rocks, broke windows, and injured several students and teachers. Children scrambled for safety while their teachers tried to shield them.

When the Israeli military arrived, however, it wasn’t to intervene and stop the attack. Instead, the soldiers had come only to arrest the school’s headmaster, who had been taken to a hospital for his injuries.