Severe thirst adds to plight of Palestinians in Gaza City

By Anadolu staff

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – A severe water shortage is worsening living conditions for Palestinians in Gaza City as most wells and water lines were destroyed in Israel’s ongoing onslaught on the enclave.

“The city’s residents are suffering from a water shortage and severe thirst due to the destruction of wells and water lines,” the Gaza Municipality said in a brief statement on Tuesday.

Municipal spokesman Housni Mohana told Anadolu that 42 water wells and a desalination plant were destroyed in Israeli attacks in Gaza City.

Last month, Gaza’s government media office said more than 700 water wells in the enclave have stopped working due to Israeli attacks and a lack of fuel.

“This increases the chances of deepening famine and thirst among civilians,” it warned.

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and the Environmental Quality Authority, the available water in Gaza is estimated to be around 10-20% of the total water amount before the Israeli offensive, and this amount is unstable and depends on fuel availability.

The Israeli offensive has destroyed 350 out of 700 kilometers of water networks and 9 out of 10 water tanks, it added.

Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal onslaught on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

Nearly 37,200 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 84,800 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala