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SvennoJ on 18 July 2024
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Israel’s fuel blockade leaves Palestinians ‘drowning’ in human waste

A report released by a European activist group says the Gaza Strip is “drowning” in hundreds of thousands of tonnes of uncollected human waste.

Pax, a Dutch activist group, said in a new study that “months of continuous bombing and Israel’s fuel blockade have decimated” Gaza’s outdated waste-collection system.

“Local authorities report the Israeli [forces] are preventing access to Gaza’s three official landfills,” the group said. It added a “chemical soup” of matter and heavy metals could contaminate water supplies and farmland, and “eventually toxic substances penetrate the food chain and find their way back to humans”.

Pax warned as water can “migrate over long distances”, the danger could spread beyond the war zone. “While the danger for Gaza is imminent, the overall region could soon confront grave ecosystem and public health problems.”


Palestinians walk past a pool of sewage in northern Gaza


‘Disease will spread’: Palestinians living among sewage in central Gaza

About 700,000 displaced Palestinians in central Gaza are living among hundreds of thousands of tonnes of uncollected human waste.

The Deir el-Balah city authority this week predicted “roads will be flooded by wastewater” and “diseases will spread” as it turned off sewage water pumping and treatment stations after running out of fuel.

Doctors say scabies, chicken pox, skin rashes and lice are spreading fast. UN agencies have repeatedly warned of the risk of cholera and other serious diseases becoming epidemics.

“The heat, the diseases, the flies, the mosquitoes and their hissing, it all hurts us,” said Abu Shar, who is living with her family in a tent in Deir el-Balah. “We don’t sleep at night because of the smell of sewage. My children do not sleep because they are always ill with something spread by the waste.”

Muhammad al-Kahlot of the Palestine Red Crescent Society added: “We are suffocating from the foul smell of waste, the smoke and the heat.”


Israel reduced by 94 percent water available in Gaza

Israel has reduced by 94 percent the amount of water available in Gaza “creating a deadly health catastrophe”, a new Oxfam report says.

“Israel’s cutting of external water supply, systematic destruction of water facilities and deliberate aid obstruction have reduced the amount of water available in Gaza by 94 percent to 4.74 litres [1.25 gallons] a day per person – just under a third of the recommended minimum in emergencies and less than a single toilet flush,” the report said.

Here are some other key findings:

  • Israel damaged or destroyed five water and sanitation infrastructure sites every three days since October 7.
  • The destruction of water and electricity infrastructure and restrictions on the entry of spare parts and fuel saw water production drop by 84 percent in Gaza.
  • External supply from Israel’s national water company Mekorot fell by 78 percent.
  • Israel destroyed 70 percent of all sewage pumps and 100 percent of all wastewater treatment plants.
  • At least 88 percent of its water wells and 100 percent of its desalination plants are damaged or destroyed.


Polio virus found in Gaza sewage, ministry says

The Gaza Ministry of Health has announced that tests conducted on sewage samples in coordination with UNICEF revealed the presence of the virus that causes polio.

It said in a statement that the presence of the virus in wastewater, combined with the lack of drinkable water, puts thousands at risk of contracting the disease.

The ministry called on Israel to halt its attack, repair the sewage system and provide drinkable water to the overcrowded camps where displaced Palestinians are sheltering.