Gaza sanitation collapse a ‘public-health catastrophe’: UNICEF
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is warning that the collapse of basic sanitation services in the Gaza Strip has become a public-health disaster as infrastructure remains destroyed from Israeli attacks.
The agency says half of all families in Gaza are now using improvised toilets, including buckets, while 21 percent have witnessed open defecation, a reflection of the severe breakdown in water and sanitation systems after months of Israeli bombardment.
UNICEF teams are working to install emergency latrines and expand access to safe water, but the needs remain far greater than current capacity.
Years of Israel’s blockade and tight restrictions on aid continue to choke the flow of basic supplies into Gaza, preventing meaningful repairs to water and sanitation networks as well as devastated homes, roads, infrastructure and the healthcare system.
Children sort through trash at a landfill in Nuseirat refugee camp
Gaza official warns toxic materials may be seeping into groundwater
A senior municipal official in central Gaza is warning that toxic materials from Israeli bombardment may be seeping into the territory’s groundwater, further threatening an already devastated water system.
Tariq Shahin, director of Deir el-Balah municipality, told Al-Aqsa TV news channel that widespread destruction of infrastructure has left water and sanitation networks in ruins and urgently in need of reconstruction.
Clearing the massive volumes of rubble of destroyed buildings requires resources far beyond the capacity of local municipalities, he added.
Israel’s blockade is preventing the entry of heavy machinery and essential equipment, leaving authorities unable to clear debris – where thousands remain buried – or carry out large-scale repairs to shattered infrastructure.
‘Shocking massacre’: More details emerge on Gaza killings
The death toll from Israeli air strikes on Gaza over a roughly 12-hour period has risen to 33 – mostly women and children, hospital sources say.
Four Israeli air strikes on tents sheltering displaced people in southern Khan Younis late Wednesday and early Thursday killed 17 people, including five women and five children, according to officials at Nasser Hospital.
In Gaza City, two air attacks on a building killed 16 people, including seven children and three women, according to officials at al-Shifa Hospital in the northern part of the city, where the bodies were taken.
Hamas condemned the Israeli strikes as a “shocking massacre”. Israel said it targeted Hamas fighters.
