Israeli drones broadcasting threatening messages in Gaza despite ceasefire
Maha Hussaini, the strategy director at The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, a rights groups, says Israeli drones “are flying at low altitudes over central and eastern Gaza City” with intimidating messages.
She said the recorded messages “threaten residents and speak of a second and third Nakba“, referring to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land when Israel was created in 1948.
The Euro-Med shared a recording of the messages in a separate post on X.
Suffering in Gaza worsens as Israel obstructs aid deliveries
Delays caused by Israeli restrictions have stalled the delivery of 6,000 caravans and 200,000 tents, as agreed to in the ceasefire.
Thousands of displaced Palestinians, returning from southern Gaza, find their homes destroyed and now live in makeshift tent cities. Harsh weather conditions further compound their suffering.
Despite the agreement, progress remains hindered, leaving displaced families in dire conditions.
Palestinians walk along a street amid widespread destruction caused by the Israeli military’s ground and air offensive against Hamas in Gaza City’s Jabalia refugee camp, Tuesday, February 11
For Palestinians in Gaza, 500 days of ‘humiliation, suffering and bloodshed’
Mohammed Abu Mursa, who has been displaced more than a dozen times since Israel’s war on Gaza began, says he is hoping the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas holds.
“It’s been 500 days of humiliation, suffering and bloodshed,” the resident of northern Gaza told the AFP news agency.
Mursa, who has been able to return home after the truce took effect on January 19, said, “There is only destruction around us”.
“I just hope the ceasefire holds,” he added.
Health catastrophe in Gaza worsening amid lack of water
Oxfam says less than 7 percent of pre-conflict water levels is available to Palestinians in north and south Gaza, heightening the spread of waterborne diseases and worsening a health catastrophe in the enclave.
In the North Gaza governorate, which includes Jabalia, Beit Hanoon and Beit Lahiya, the Israeli military has destroyed almost all water wells, while in the southern Rafah governorate, more than 90 percent of water wells and reservoirs have been partially or completely damaged, and water production is less than five percent of its capacity before the conflict, Oxfam said.
And despite efforts to resume water production following the ceasefire, the destruction of Gaza’s water pipelines means that 60 percent of water is leaking into the ground rather than reaching people, it added.
“Now that the bombs have stopped, we have only just begun to grasp the sheer scale of destruction to Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure. Most vital water and sanitation networks have been entirely lost or paralyzed, creating catastrophic hygiene and health conditions,” said Clemence Lagouardat, Oxfam’s humanitarian head of response in Gaza.
“Our staff and partners have told how people are stopping them in the streets asking for water, and that parents are not drinking to save water for their children. It is heartbreaking to hear about children having to walk for miles for a single jerrycan of water.”
The advocacy group says there has been an explosion of waterborne and infectious diseases in Gaza amid the lack of safe water and untreated sewage overflowing in the enclave’s streets.
It cited a study by the World Health Organization, which found that 88 percent of environmental samples surveyed across Gaza were found contaminated with polio, “signalling an imminent risk of outbreak”. It said infectious diseases, including acute watery diarrhoea and respiratory infections – now the leading causes of death, are also surging, with 46,000 cases, mostly children, being reported each week.
Chickenpox and skin diseases such as scabies and impetigo are also spreading rapidly, particularly among displaced populations in the North Gaza governorate, facing severe water shortages.
“Rebuilding water and sanitation is vital for Gaza to have a path to normalcy after 15 months of horror. The ceasefire must hold and fuel and aid must flow so that Palestinians can rebuild their lives,” said Lagouardat, Oxfam’s humanitarian coordinator in Gaza.
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