A chickenpox outbreak is spreading rapidly through displacement camps in Gaza, with around 9,300 cases recorded across more than 130 health facilities in just two weeks.

Doctors and health workers say the actual number of infections is likely much higher because many patients are treated in tents or local clinics and never reach hospitals. The UN health cluster attributed the rise to severe overcrowding, high summer temperatures and worsening access to clean water.

More than half of the reported cases were recorded in Khan Younis governorate. Health teams also registered more than 18,000 new cases of infectious skin diseases across Gaza during the same week, including scabies, head lice and impetigo.

Isolation, which is recommended for children with chickenpox, is nearly impossible in many displacement camps. Families of six or more often live together in tents measuring only a few square metres, while in some locations multiple families share a single tent.

Hamada Abu Ghali, who is displaced in Nuseirat, said doctors told his daughter to stay apart from other family members after she was diagnosed with chickenpox. But the family had no space to follow the advice.

“Before the war we had a house and rooms, but today all of us are in one tent,” he said.

Ahmed Abu Hussein, displaced in Deir al-Balah, said children continued to play together because families could not keep them inside cramped shelters.

“We can’t control them or keep them inside the tent, so the infection ends up spreading to the whole family,” he said.

At Al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital, paediatric consultant Dr Sharif Mattar said official figures probably represented only a fraction of the outbreak. Many children are treated in displacement sites and primary healthcare centres, leaving their cases out of hospital statistics.

Nurse Sheimaa Hajji said health centres were seeing more children with widespread rashes. Treatment has largely focused on easing itching and preventing secondary bacterial infections, but supplies are running short.

The outbreak is being worsened by a vaccination crisis. Bassam Zaqout, director of Medical Relief in Gaza, said thousands of children born during the war had been unable to complete routine vaccination schedules. Restrictions on vaccine deliveries have also limited efforts to improve community protection.

Health officials have warned that chickenpox can pose additional risks to pregnant women, while maternity services in Gaza remain severely limited.

The World Health Organisation said the health system continues to operate with restricted capacity because of damaged facilities, shortages of medicines and a lack of medical staff.

UN field teams have also reported unsafe water supplies and sewage flowing around displacement sites.

The UN health cluster has increased the distribution of fever medicines, anti-itch treatments and antibiotics for bacterial complications. Health education teams have also been deployed.

Aid agencies warn that these efforts will not be enough without a major increase in medical supplies, clean water and hygiene materials reaching Gaza.

A Romanian F-16 fighter jet shot down a drone over eastern Romania on Friday after the unmanned aircraft was detected approaching the country’s airspace, according to the Romanian Ministry of Defence.

President Nicușor Dan said the incident took place at around 11 a.m. and that an investigation had been launched.

“The area was uninhabited, so the pilot was able to fire without any risk,” Dan wrote in a post on X.

The Ministry of Defence said the F-16, operating from the 86th Air Base at Fetești, engaged the drone with an air-to-air missile during an air policing mission.

The drone was intercepted over an unpopulated area near Padina, northeast of Bucharest. According to the ministry, radars first detected the unmanned aerial vehicle at about 9:40 a.m. over the Black Sea.

The aircraft then moved west towards the port town of Sulina before continuing in the direction of Buzău, the ministry said.

Romania scrambled two F-16 fighter jets to monitor the situation, while two Italian Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft operating from Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base were also sent to the area.

The incident adds to a series of recent drone-related events that have raised security concerns in Romania, a NATO and European Union member bordering Ukraine.

In May, a Russian drone carrying explosives crashed in the city of Galați, causing a fire on the roof of a residential apartment building and injuring two people.

A month later, a Ukrainian sea drone exploded in the Romanian port of Constanța. The Ukrainian navy said the vessel had been pushed off course by Russian electronic warfare interference.

The repeated incidents have increased concern among European officials about the spillover risks from Russia’s war against Ukraine.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen previously described such incidents as a direct consequence of the conflict.

Romania has strengthened its air surveillance and defence measures since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The country’s location along the Black Sea and close to the war zone has made it particularly vulnerable to airspace incidents and unmanned aircraft activity.

Authorities have not yet publicly identified the origin of the drone shot down on Friday. The investigation is expected to examine its flight path, type and possible purpose as officials assess the circumstances surrounding the incursion.