Water Shutoff
Updated 2023-11-14
2023-11-12 Palestinians in Gaza say finding clean drinking water is like “prospecting for gold” I’m a Jewish American who mentors young adult Gazan writers through a program called We Are Not Numbers (WANN). Or, at least, I did before October 7. Since Israel started bombing the territory and cut off most communications, I can only regularly reach one, A. (I’m using initials because Gazans are concerned about being targeted for retaliation if they criticize Israel).
We don’t discuss A.’s writing anymore. Instead, he sends me messages about how many hours he stands in line for bread each day without getting any (the record, so far, is 8). He sleeps with 50 other people on the floor of a hall with no working bathrooms, no electricity, and minimal food—as of a few days ago, his family was eating chocolate and chips as meals because it was all they could find on the emptying store shelves. But none of this is as pressing as the daily search for water.
There’s no running water in most of the city, because Israel shut off the pipes leading into Gaza and won’t allow any fuel in to power its desalination plants.
“people are drinking from municipality water (which is for washing/cleaning and not for drinking) due to the severe lack of water. Some people use a filter to purify either that water or water from the sea! Some people have wells beneath their homes but they don’t have electricity to pump it. Some Mosques donated water for people. They have to be in a loooong queue to fill a bottle of water. Some people are lucky and the rest are not.” https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/palestinians-in-gaza-say-finding-clean-drinking-water-is-like-prospecting-for-gold/
2023-11-09 Infectious Diseases Surging in Gaza Amid Israeli Siege, Healthcare System Collapse “The humanitarian suffering in Gaza has already reached catastrophic levels, and it’s set to get worse unless something changes immediately,” said one human rights official. The infectious disease outbreaks that doctors on the ground, public health officials, and humanitarian groups have been warning about for weeks in Gaza appear to be in full force, the World Health Organization said Thursday as it reiterated its call for a cease-fire to save lives.
The global public health organization said authorities have reported a surge in cases of diarrhea, with more than half of those affected children under the age of 5, as Israel’s decision to cut off fuel access in the blockaded enclave has shut down water desalination plants and disrupted waste collection. The circumstances have created “an environment conducive to the rapid and widespread proliferation of insects, rodents that can carry and transit diseases.”
By Thursday, said the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, all of Gaza’s 120 municipal water wells were expected to be depleted.
Health officials in the blockaded enclave, where nearly 11,000 civilians have now been killed, are also reporting nearly 9,000 cases of scabies and lice; 12,600 cases of skin rashes; more than 1,000 reports of chickenpox; and nearly 55,000 cases of upper respiratory infections as roughly 1.5 million displaced people crowd into hospitals, churches, schools, and shelters in search of safety from Israel’s relentless bombardment. https://www.commondreams.org/news/infectious-diseases-gaza
.
Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict
.
progressiveissuesblog 