Palestinians walk past piles of waste that threaten to cause an environmental disaster
Mughrabi (GAZA):
As Israeli airstrikes battered the Gaza Strip ahead of an expected ground offensive, the enclave’s residents grew more desperate by the hour as water ran out, garbage piled up, explosions leveled homes and hospitals struggled to cope.
Desperate for drinking water, some people began digging wells in areas adjacent to the sea or relying on salty tap water from Gaza’s only aquifer, which is contaminated with sewage and seawater.
Two residents of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, volunteered to fill plastic containers with water to distribute to displaced families.
Some residents prayed for an end to the war between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, which has raised fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East.
They said the nighttime airstrikes were the heaviest in nine days of conflict. Many houses were razed to the ground. Gaza authorities said at least 2,750 people, mostly civilians and including more than 700 children, had been killed and nearly 10,000 injured. Another 1,000 people were missing, probably under the rubble.
Israel has imposed a full blockade as it prepares a ground attack in Gaza. Israeli troops and tanks are gathered at the border.
The country has vowed to destroy Hamas, which rules the enclave, in retaliation for its fighters’ rampage in Israeli cities nine days ago, during which its agents killed 1,300 civilians, including children, and took hostages in the worst attack on civilians in history of the country. The Israeli military said at least 291 soldiers were killed.
Medical and emergency services, and some graphic mobile phone images, said atrocities were being committed in the flooded towns and kibbutzim.
Hamas has continued to fire rockets into Israel since the cross-border attack. On Monday, rocket warning sirens sounded in several cities in southern Israel, the Israeli military said.
Diplomatic efforts are being made to get help into the enclave through Egypt.
“Gaza is running out of water and electricity. Gaza is even being strangled and it seems that the world has lost its humanity at this moment,” said Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner General of the Palestinian refugee organization UNRWA.
Hamas said on Monday that Israel has not resumed water supplies to Gaza, despite promising to do so. An Israeli official said some water was being delivered to an area in the south of the enclave.
Amid international calls for a ceasefire to allow aid, Israel’s Energy Minister Israel Katz said there would be no end to the siege without the freedom of Israeli hostages. The Israeli army said on Monday that 199 people have been taken hostage in Gaza.
FEAR OF HEALTH CRISIS
Gaza is one of the busiest places on earth, and for now there is no way out. Egypt, which also has a border with the enclave, has so far resisted calls to open the enclave to fleeing residents.
“Because of the large number of people in the camp, there is no water. That’s why I thought I would volunteer, come on a rickshaw and carry the water from the distant areas, the dangerous areas,” said Mohammad Saqr.
“Now we’re filling up with salt water, I’m ready to drink the salt water – what else can we do?” Sakr said.
Even before the latest conflict broke out and Israel cut electricity and fresh water supplies to Gaza, 90 percent of the water was undrinkable, according to the Palestinian Water Authority.
The only aquifer in the area is contaminated by sewage, chemicals, seawater and desalination facilities nearby. Their public taps are a lifesaver for some of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.
Even the 10% of aquifer water that is considered safe to drink is often mixed with poor quality water during distribution, making it suitable only for washing.
Many families living in Gaza have chosen to drill private wells that draw water from deep underground, and a small number who can afford it tend to buy bottled water. Others buy cheaper filtered, treated water from water trucks that roam the streets.
Waste is also piling up on the streets and in shelters for displaced people, raising fears of a health crisis.
“If the waste continues to pile up, it will cause diseases and pandemics,” said Mohammad Hadhoud, a cleaning worker from Khan Younis.
Doctors are trying to help a growing number of patients, including children injured in the airstrikes, in overcrowded hospitals short of medicine and fuel due to the blockade. Only the most acute cases are operated on because there are not enough resources, doctors say.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
