Access to clean water denied in besieged Gaza as Israeli airstrikes continue
As Israel pounds the Gaza Strip with airstrikes, Laila Abu Samhadaneh, 65, is anxious about water, AP reports.
The besieged Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million people don’t have access to clean, running water after Israel cut off water and electricity to the enclave as it intensifies its air attacks in response to a bloody Hamas attack last week.
The chokehold has seen taps run dry across the territory. When water does trickle from pipes, the meager flow lasts no more than 30 minutes each day and is so contaminated with sewage and seawater that it’s undrinkable, residents said.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do tomorrow,” Abu Samhadaneh said from her three-room home in the southern town of Rafah, which turned into a de facto shelter after Israel demanded everyone in Gaza evacuate south. She said she rations just a few liters among dozens of friends and relatives each day. “We’re going crazy.”
The deprivation has plunged Gaza’s population deeper into misery as Israel’s bombardment intensifies one week after Hamas fighters surged across Israel’s separation fence, killing 1,300 Israelis and abducting dozens. Israel’s retaliatory strikes have crushed hundreds of buildings in Gaza and killed more than 2,200 Palestinians.
