THE UNFOLDING WATER CATASTROPHE IN GAZA

Here are six ways in which the destruction of water and sanitation networks along with the blockade on water and power supplies exacerbates civilian suffering.

1.    Most Gazans are forced to resort to non-potable water sources, including saline-brackish agricultural wells, exposing themselves to waterborne diseases, most notably cholera, with health repercussions that extend far beyond the immediate effects of conflict.

2.    Sewage and solid waste are piling up on the streets, posing significant health hazards. With sewage systems and wastewater treatment plants non-operational due to a lack of fuel, over 130,000 cubic meters of wastewater is being discharged into the Mediterranean Sea daily.

3.    Lack of water affects personal hygiene, further raising the risk of diseases. Children under five are particularly vulnerable to this water shortage, facing the risk of diarrheal diseases. This represents a tragic escalation of civilian suffering, with the youngest the most severely impacted.

4.    The lack of water is having a heavy impact on women and girls. With limited water, mothers struggle to make baby formula, and the conflict trauma is affecting breast milk production. (Watch Regional Humanitarian Coordinator Ruth James talk about formula and breast milk here) The scarcity of water and lack of privacy in overcrowded conditions also make menstrual management a significant challenge, leading many women to take medication to alter menstrual cycles. Additionally, lack of water exacerbates the dire healthcare situation (see below), with over 50,000 women at risk of giving birth in non-operational hospitals that lack supplies. This not only endangers women’s physical health but also their dignity and emotional well-being..

5.    Lack of water in hospitals in Gaza is putting the lives of thousands of inpatients at immediate risk. Water is of course essential for maintaining sanitary conditions in hospitals, preventing hospital-associated infections, and saving the lives of patients in critical care. Healthcare workers need water to keep going and do their jobs.

6.    The lack of wastewater treatment and the discharge of sewage into the sea will cause  environmental damage that could have long-term consequences for the region’s ecology, and damage civilians’ livelihoods.

Open this link for much more information:

THE UNFOLDING WATER CATASTROPHE IN GAZA - Oxfam

A Lanesboro, Minnesota Resident Makes Powerful Comparisons to Gaza

STATISTICS FROM GAZA

“The death of one man is tragic, but the death of thousands is a statistic." -- Joseph Stalin

Sitting in the relative comfort and safety of my Lanesboro home, and never having been to the Middle East, I find it almost impossible to grasp the “statistics” from Gaza. Two and a quarter people living in a “confined area.” More than 1 in 100 (24,000) killed since October 7. 10,000 children killed. What does all that mean?

Trying to make the statistics more comprehensible, I found it useful to consider some closer to home numbers for comparison:

The population of Fillmore County is 20,866. If all the residents of Fillmore County – everyone of us, our families, our friends, our neighbors – were killed, that would be fewer than the number of Gazans slaughtered in the last 3 months.

The area of Fillmore County is 862 square miles. 862 square miles for 20,866 people. The “confined area” of Gaza is 141 square miles, less than one sixth the area of Fillmore County. 141 square miles for 2,226,544 people.

“Population density” too abstract? Consider then the populations of:

• Minnesota – 5,728,610

• Wisconsin – 5,917,415

• North Dakota – 781,915

• South Dakota – 937,144

• total – 13,365,084

If the total population of these four states – every man, woman, child, and infant – were crammed into Fillmore County, it would be almost, but not quite, as crowded here as in Gaza. The population of the municipality of Whalan would not be 63, but rather 41,098 Lanesboro not 754, but rather 491,871.

There are a few urban areas on Earth in which the population density is that great. The important differences are that in those places people are free to come and go and that the necessities of life – potable water, edible food, medicine, fuel, electricity, sanitation, etc. – are provided.

Consider Fillmore County as Gaza on a good day. Some 13 million of us here. Stuck here. The neo-Minnesotans have built a wall around the Eastern, Northern, and Western borders, and the Iowans across the Southern. We can’t leave.

Forests and farms are gone. The landscape is pretty much continuous buildings in poor repair – not unlike, for example, “the projects” on the South side of Chicago. Some roof top gardens perhaps and an occasional chicken coop here and there. No cattle, pigs, deer, beaver. No trout in the polluted Root and Upper Iowa Rivers.​

If we “behave ourselves,” the neo-Minnesotans will allow truckloads of food, fuel, some other goods to come down Highway 52 from Rochester or up from Decorah – enough to keep us from starving or freezing. They’ll keep the electricity turned on most of the time. They’ll let garbage trucks in and out. They’ll give us some medicines, for example, once their people have had all their COVID boosters, they might give us some vaccine. We’re continuously admonished not to rebel.

But we’ve also learned the consequences of nonviolent protest – march towards the wall with picket signs and the soldiers just shoot us in the knee caps to cripple us. And on a not so good day? No food trucks, running water, electricity, fuel, or garbage collection for more than a week. As Mayor of Lanesboro, you’ve been given 24 hours notice to evacuate everyone in Lanesboro to safe haven in Rushford, after which, Lanesboro will be bombed. Highway 16 will be safe passage – unless it appears that combatants are using it. How do you move half a million people 20 miles in 24 hours to another municipality that already has more than one million inhabitants? School buses. No gas left at the BP station. What about the tens of thousands folks in assisted living?

So, what can the people of Gaza do? What should they do?

What can we do? What should we do?

David R Webb, MD

Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel | Flash Update #95

Between the afternoons of 16 and 17 January, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, 163 Palestinians were killed, and another 350 people were injured. Between 7 October 2023 and 12:00 on 17 January 2024, at least 24,448 Palestinians were killed in Gaza and 61,504 Palestinians were injured, according to the MoH.  

As of 17 January, telecommunication services in Gaza have remained shut down for the fifth consecutive day, since 12 January. In light of this, new information is limited in this Flash Update. This is the seventh time that communications have stopped working since 7 October. The blackout of telecommunications prevents people in Gaza from accessing lifesaving information or calling for first responders, and impedes other forms of humanitarian response. 

the West Bank:

On 17 January, Israeli forces killed five Palestinian in an airstrike on a vehicle near the entrance of Balata Refugee Camp, Nablus city. Four of the bodies are being withheld by Israeli forces. The fifth body was incinerated by the airstrike. Israeli forces reportedly prevented PRCS ambulances from accessing the location and opened fire at them. According to the Israeli authorities, a vehicle that carried Palestinians accused of conducting attacks against Israelis was targeted. Two hours before the airstrike, Israeli forces conducted an operation in Balata Refugee Camp, in which they raided a number of Palestinian homes. Clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians also erupted during the operation, including the throwing of pipe bombs by the latter.  

read the full report: Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel Flash Update #95

“I wish the war would end soon. I want to go back to my school. I miss my teachers and my friends,” Maha (11), Rafah. Over 625,000 students remain with no access to education or safety. Most schools in Gaza are damaged, destroyed or used to accommodate displaced people. Photo by UNICEF/Eyad El Baba, 8 January 2024 

In Gaza, Israel has turned water into a weapon of mass destruction

“Past Israeli military operations in both of these occupied territories have also led to the destruction of water resources. And for decades, Israel has used water grabbing to dispossess Palestinians of their land and ways of life — impeding Palestinian agriculture in the West Bank and for Palestinians inside Israel. But Israel’s weaponization of water within the framework of its current offensive on the Gaza Strip is on an entirely different scale, with the capacity to cause an unparalleled public health crisis and irreversible ecological damage.” 

In Gaza, Israel has turned water into a weapon of mass destruction

This article was written by Nancy Murray, PhD, has taught in universities and worked on human rights issues in the UK and Kenya as well as in the US, where for 25 years she was Director of Education at the ACLU of Massachusetts. She has been an activist for peace with justice in the Middle East since 1988 when she paid her first visit to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and is a member of the Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine.

Amahl Bishara is associate professor of anthropology at Tufts University. She is author of "Crossing a Line: Laws, Violence, and Roadblocks to Palestinian Political Expression" and "Back Stories: US News Production and Palestinian Politics". She has been part of collaborative research teams and activist initiatives addressing water scarcity in a West Bank refugee camp.

Palestinians at an UNRWA camp in Rafah after heavy rainfall, in the southern Gaza Strip, November 14, 2023. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)