Palestinians surrounded by sewage and garbage in Gaza’s fierce fire

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza (AP) — Youths wearing sandals wade through H2O contaminated by growing piles of sewage and garbage in Gaza. crowded tent camp For displaced families. The family defecates in pits covered with sackcloth, with no place nearby to clean their fingers.

In the scorching heat, Palestinians say the smell and dust of their environment is another inevitable fact of war – like the pain or sounds of hunger. detonate the bombs,

The sector’s ability to get rid of waste, deal with sewage and ship empty H2O has been virtually destroyed over the past 8 brutal months. Conflict between Israel and Hamas, This has worsened living conditions and increased threats to a population of thousands deprived of adequate safe shelter, Meal And medicine, backup teams say.

Cases of hepatitis A are rising, and doctors worry that as the warmer weather approaches, the likelihood of the deadly disease cholera increases without dramatic changes in living conditions. The United Nations, backup groups and local officials are struggling to build toilets, repair H2O lines and bring desalination plants back online.

COGAT, the Israeli military organization that coordinates humanitarian aid efforts, said it was engaging in efforts to strengthen “sanitary conditions.” The holidays can’t come soon enough, though.

“The flies are in our food,” said Adel Dalloul, 21, whose tribe lives in a seaside tent camp near the central Gaza town of Nuseirat. They reached the southern city of Rafah, the closest they got to their northern Gaza home. “If you try to sleep, there are flies, bugs and cockroaches all around you.”

More than 1,000,000 Palestinians were living in suddenly assembled tent camps in Rafah before Israel’s invasion in May. Since the Rafah exodus, many people have sought safe haven in more crowded and unsanitary areas in southern and central Gaza, which doctors describe as breeding grounds for challenge – especially when temperatures typically soar. but reaches 90 °F (32 °C).

“The stench in Gaza is enough to make you instantly nauseous,” said Sam Rose, director of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.

The circumstances are also emotionally burdensome.

Anwar al-Hurakli, who lives with his subjects in a tent camp in the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balah, said he cannot entertain for fear of scorpions and rodents. He doesn’t let his children set up his tent, he said, worried they’ll get sick from pollution and mosquitoes.

“We can’t stand the smell of sewage,” he said. “It’s killing us.”

Breakdown of minor products and services

The United Nations estimates that about 70% of Gaza’s H2O and sanitation plants were destroyed or damaged due to Israeli bombing. This includes all five of the region’s wastewater treatment facilities, as well as H2O desalination plants, sewage pumping stations, wells and reservoirs.

Officials say workers who once controlled municipal H2O and misspent programs have been displaced and some have died. On this day, an Israeli accident in Gaza City killed 5 government workers repairing H2O wells, the city said.

Backup workers say that despite staff shortages and broken equipment, some desalination plants and sewage pumps are running, although they are hampered by gasoline shortages.

A UN review of the 2 Deir al-Balah tent camps that existed in early June found that the population’s daily H2O intake – including consumption, bathing and cooking – averaged less than 2 liters (about 67 ounces), which is It is quite less. 15 liters per speed is recommended.

COGAT said it was coordinating with the United Nations to fix sewage facilities and Gaza’s H2O machine. It said that Israel has opened 3 H2O strains in Gaza, which are pumping millions of liters of water per day.

However, the population waits continuously for hours for packaged potable water from supply vans, even if they are not able to pick it up. Due to the shortage, houses are constantly being washed with dirty H2O.

At this age, Dalloul said, he took cover for H2O from a dealer. “We found it was salty, polluted and full of germs. We found insects in the water. I was drinking it,” he said. “I had gastrointestinal problems and diarrhea, and up to this moment my stomach hurts.”

The International Disease Group has declared hepatitis A a life-threatening disease, resulting in 81,700 cases of jaundice – a regular symptom – by the beginning of June. The problem basically spreads when uninfected populations consume food contaminated with H2O or feces.

Waste water treatment has resulted in the vegetation becoming almost sickly, with untreated sewage seeping into the grasslands or being discharged into the Mediterranean Sea, where the tide moves north towards Israel.

“If Gaza has poor water conditions and polluted groundwater, that’s an issue for Israel,” said Rose, of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. “This has prompted action by Israel in the past to try to remedy the situation.”

COGAT said it was working on “improving waste management processes” and analyzing proposals to explore fresh dumps and allow additional garbage vans into Gaza.

Where might the waste go next?

Standing barefoot on a side road inside the Nusirat refugee camp, Abu Shadi Afana, 62, compared the pile of garbage behind him to a “waterfall.” Even though families live in tents nearby, trucks continue to unload garbage, he said.

“There is no one to provide us with tents, food or drink, and on top of all this, we live in garbage?” Afna said. Garbage attracts insects that Gaza has never cleaned before – tiny insects that stick to her skin. As he lay sick, he said, it seemed as if they were “eating his face.”

There are some alternative parks to keep litter moving. When Israel’s military monitored a 1-kilometre (0.6 mi) buffer zone along its border with Gaza, Khan Yunis and the two primary landfills east of Gaza Town were out of bounds.

By their absence, accidental landfills have developed. Displaced Palestinians fleeing from farms to safer havens say they are left with nothing but tents near garbage heaps.

Satellite photos by Planet Labs, analyzed by The Associated Press, show that a contingent landfill in Khan Yunis that began around October 7 has doubled its extent since January. Since the Rafah evacuation, a tent city has sprung up around the landfill, with Palestinians living among piles of garbage.

fear of cholera

Doctors in Gaza worry that cholera is also at risk.

“Crowded conditions, lack of water, heat, poor hygiene – these are the prerequisites for cholera,” said Dr Joanne Perry, who works in southern Gaza with Docs Without Borders.

He said most of the patients are suffering from diseases or infections caused by poor hygiene. Itching, gastrointestinal illnesses and rashes are regular. The WHO says more than 485,000 cases of diarrhea have been reported since the war began.

“When we go to the hospital to ask for medicine for diarrhea, they tell us it is not available, and I go to buy it outside the hospital,” Al-Hurkli said. “But where will I get the money?”

COGAT says it is coordinating vaccines and medical supplies and is in day-to-day contact with Gaza state authorities. It added that COGAT “is unaware of any authentic, verified reports of unusual diseases other than viral diseases.”

As ceasefire efforts between Israel and Hamas have stalled, Dalloul says he has lost hope that support is on the way.

“I’m 21 years old. I need to start my life over,” he said. “Now I just live in front of the garbage.”
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Frankel reported from Jerusalem. AP newshounds Jack Jeffery in Ramallah, West Attic, and Michael Biesecker in Washington contributed to this document.