'We've never seen anything like this': Doctors baffled by skin infections spreading through Gaza
www.abc.net.au
Sewage seeping through the streets of Gaza is prompting a new infectious threat to desperate Palestinians.
  • ms.lane@lemmy.worldEnglish
    620·
    3 months ago

    The water systems were ripped out to make Rockets.

    That isn’t Israel’s fault.

    • T00l_shed@lemmy.worldEnglish
      114·
      3 months ago

      Riiiiiight. The country bombing the other country back to the stone age isn’t responsible for this.

    • Keeponstalin@lemmy.worldEnglish
      63·
      3 months ago

      The destruction and control of water infrastructure is deliberate

      In 1967, Israel seized control of all water resources in the newly occupied territories. To this day, it retains exclusive control over all the water resources that lie between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, with the exception of a short section of the coastal aquifer that runs under the Gaza Strip. Israel uses the water as it sees fit, ignoring the needs of Palestinians in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip to such an extent that both areas suffer from a severe water shortage. In each of them, residents are not supplied enough water; in Gaza, even the water that is supplied is substandard and unfit for drinking

      Israel has been holding the Gaza Strip under blockade for more than a decade, since June 2007. It does not allow any materials in that it considers “dual purpose”, i.e., that can be used for either civilian or military purposes. This includes construction materials, such as cement and iron, and other raw materials. All these are needed to repair Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure, which were heavily damaged by Israeli bombings, especially in Operation Cast Lead (which began in late 2008) and Operation Protective Edge (the summer of 2014).

      The coastal aquifer, on which residents of Gaza depend for water, has been polluted by over-pumping and wastewater contamination, making 97% of the water pumped from it and supplied to homes unsafe to drink. As there are no other water sources available, the over-pumping continues and the aquifer is on the brink of collapse. Residents have no choice but to cut back on drinking and buy desalinated water from private vendors. Yet an estimated 68% of this water is also polluted, increasing the risk of diseases spreading among the population.

    • Eximius@lemmy.worldEnglish
      31·
      3 months ago

      I tried to believe this was satire, and it downvoted wrongly, but checking @ms.lane comments made me sure it’s not. Boo.