As Israel keeps bombing the territory, Gaza is running out of clean water. In less than a week, the supply of wheat flour is predicted to run out, and hospitals lack painkillers.
It appears that there is no escaping death in the biggest outdoor prison in the world. Gazans have been enduring Israel’s unrelenting airstrikes for more than ten days. Following the Hamas onslaught on October 7, Jerusalem cut off supplies to the enclave, which is home to over two million Palestinians. They are running out of water, food, power, and medications due to the total siege.
With each passing day, the number of fatalities in the Hamas-controlled enclave has increased. More than 3,000 individuals have perished as a result of Israeli assaults. This excludes the 500 people killed on Tuesday in an explosion at the Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. While the Israeli military asserts that a rocket was accidentally fired by other Palestinian militants, Hamas claims that an Israeli airstrike struck the hospital.
The common Gazans are being targeted in the crossfire as Israel and Hamas continue to trade insults. The lack of power, the scarcity of water and medications, and the inaccessibility of help have all contributed to the impending humanitarian crisis. How much of the strip’s stock of necessities remains? The truth is what we present to you.
Gaza water crisis
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Even in times of peace, water is a luxury for the people of Gaza. The World Health Organization’s minimum standard for daily per capita water consumption was not met by the enclave’s water supply even before the most recent flare-up, according to a Reuters report.
The only natural water source for the enclave is the Coastal Aquifer Basin, which stretches along the eastern Mediterranean coast from Egypt’s northern Sinai Peninsula through Gaza and into Israel. The article cites a 2020 study published in the journal “Water” that claims the quality of the groundwater in the aquifer has “deteriorated rapidly” because it was pumped out to satisfy the needs of Gaza’s vast population faster than it could be supplied by rains.
According to the Palestinian water administration, 90% of the water was unusable even before hostilities started. 97% of people rely on unregulated private tankers and small-scale desalination facilities for their drinking water.
Israel cut off fresh water supplies to the Gaza Strip following the fatal strike by Hamas. Severe water shortages have “become a matter of life and death,” according to the United Nations.
The only supply of water for Gazans in such a situation is the contaminated water from the aquifer. Due to the blockade’s limits on power, three desalination facilities that the enclave relies on have had to cease functioning.
According to Reuters, families in a state of desperation have begun digging their own wells. Only a select few can afford mineral water, but many have turned to purchasing less expensively treated water from trucks, according to The Guardian.
The final seawater desalination facility in Gaza has closed, according to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. The UNRWA stated in a statement on Tuesday that “concerns over dehydration and waterborne diseases are high given the collapse of water and sanitation services, including today’s shutdown of Gaza’s last functioning seawater desalination plant.”
Additionally inoperable, according to the report, are six water wells, three water pumping stations, and one water reservoir that combined provided water to over 1.1 million people.
Israel announced that it has agreed to restart water deliveries to southern Gaza on Sunday after US vice president Joe Biden intervened. Hamas asserted that Israel has not yet started supplying water to the Gaza Strip again. An Israeli official retorted that a region in the south of the enclave was received.
Food crisis
63% of Gaza Strip residents, according to the World Food Programme, are food insecure. Prior to the war, this. The blockade has now made the situation worse.
Bread is a staple food for the people of Gaza, but the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) predicts that the supply of wheat flour would run out in less than a week. Due to a scarcity of energy and fuel, only one out of five flour mills is operating.
The lack of ingredients prevents the operation of local bakeries. According to The Guardian, who cited local media, the wait time was more than 10 hours in the few that are still in operation. According to a Gazan man who spoke to The Associated Press, his family of 20 to 30 people would divide the kilo of bread that he had purchased.
People are forced to limit their food, and others have taken to only eating once a day while giving precedence to the young.
Shelters in Gaza have received some fresh bread from the World Food Programme. However, according to Al-Jazeera, food that can feed 244,000 people is waiting for clearance at the Egypt-Gaza Rafah border.
Food is in short supply, and the warehouses are all empty. Most of the shelves in the few supermarkets that are open are empty, according to Safwat Kahlout of Al-Jazeera in Gaza.
Electricity
Power lines from Israel and the Gaza power plant are the enclave’s two main sources of electricity. Both have ceased to exist. Israel turned off the electricity when the siege began, and a week ago the nearby power plant closed because it was running out of fuel to provide electricity.
As they are expected to run out of power, hospitals are on the edge of collapsing, endangering thousands of lives. Hospitals may run out of generator fuel in less than 24 hours, the UN said on Monday.
The Guardian notes that the lack of electricity has also complicated search and rescue operations. According to the emergency and rescue organization in Palestine, the Palestinian Civil Defence, many individuals are still buried beneath the debris, and discovering them would be challenging without access to electricity.
Aid
The UN and other relief organizations provide food, medication, and other essential services to about 63% of Gaza’s population. Now that the Rafah gate between Egypt and the enclave has been blocked for a week, the embargo prevents these necessities from getting into and out of the restricted region.
According to a story in The Washington Post, hundreds of tons of aid are still trapped on the Egyptian side of the crossing despite rising pleas from around the world to help Gaza’s inhabitants.
There were rumors that Egypt, Israel, and the US had agreed to open the crossing on Monday. But such a deal was not reached, according to Hamas and Jerusalem.
More than 80% of Gaza’s inhabitants, according to UNRWA, are currently living in poverty.
Especially as the number of injured rises, the paucity of medicine is alarming. Al-Jazeera reported that vital services like dialysis have already been halted and that hospitals are short of painkillers.
According to Dr. Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for its office in the West Bank and Gaza, blood banks barely have two weeks’ worth of supply left.
It’s a terrible situation. Gaza is shouting “Help!” But are the world and Israel paying attention?
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