Gaza: Water Crisis Due to Israeli Attacks and Blockade

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, only one of the three water pipelines linking Israel and Gaza is functioning.

The 2.3 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip today suffer from a lack of clean water amid unsanitary conditions and disease, ActionAid International denounced.

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The NGO stressed in a statement that many shelter centers and camps for displaced people rely on trucks to deliver the liquid. However, it warned that capacity is limited because delivery operations are affected by limited fuel supplies.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, only one of the three water pipelines linking Israel and Gaza is functioning.

The total amount available in the territory is estimated to be only 10 to 20 percent of what it was before the new cycle of violence erupted on 7 October, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Palestinian Water Authority.

ActionAid International said the average population in the coastal enclave receives only three liters a day, far less than the minimum 15 litres a day recommended by the World Health Organization.

Children in Gaza are dying due to lack of food and water, while disease is spreading in overcrowded and unsanitary displacement camps, stressed Reham Jaafari, the group's communications and advocacy officer.

In a statement on the occasion of International Water Day, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused the neighbouring country of stealing water resources in the occupied territories for decades and depriving the Palestinian people of their right to them.

How can the world raise the slogan of water for peace, when children in Gaza drink seawater and polluted water and die of thirst, he asked.

How can the United Nations call for the transformation of water as a tool for peace, while the Israeli occupation continues to use it as a tool to kill and exterminate without the slightest respect for all warnings, he said.

The Palestinian Water Authority denounced last week that the Israeli army destroyed 40 percent of the water infrastructure in Gaza and damaged much of the rest.