Government Media Office says Gaza City now ‘living in a state of extreme thirst’
Gaza’s Government Media Office says all of the city’s water wells had stopped functioning two weeks ago. The wells are no longer operational mainly due to a lack of fuel, which Israel has banned from entering the Strip since it imposed a total blockade more than six months ago.
Gaza City’s only desalination plant, more than 40 water wells and the city’s water networks have been destroyed, the office said. It warned that the “crisis” has reached its peak as temperatures continue to rise and demand for water consumption has also increased.
“The whole city is living in a state of extreme thirst,” it said. Gaza’s “health and environmental crisis” is only going to get much worse amid extreme water shortages, the office added.
‘Hundreds’ suffering from respiratory illnesses amid lack of cooking gas
Gaza’s civil defence has called for the “urgent” entry of cooking gas, particularly to Gaza City and the northern parts of the Strip. In a statement, it said families have resorted to cooking using plastic pots over charcoal and firewood for months, which have released “poisonous gas”.
This has caused a “new humanitarian and health crisis”, the civil defence said, adding that its teams have so far registered “hundreds” of cases of people suffering from respiratory illnesses.
Several killed in attack on southern Gaza’s Rafah
At least seven people have been killed in an Israeli air raid on the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood in Rafah, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. The majority of those killed were “women and children”, it said, adding that a strike hit a residential home.
It said the death toll is likely to rise given the number of people who sustained injuries.
