GAZA, (PIC)
The Deir Al-Balah Municipality in the Gaza Strip announced the stoppage of all water wells and tanks, due to the depletion of the fuel required to operate them.
The head of the Emergency Committee in the municipality described the failure to supply the diesel fuel needed by the municipalities as a war crime and a collective punishment for all the people of the Gaza Strip.
In a press statement on Monday, he said that the water system in the city of Deir Al-Balah is out of service due to the lack of diesel supply, explaining that the shutdown of two water tanks and 19 wells puts the lives of thousands of citizens at risk.
He pointed out that 700,000 citizens and displaced persons in the city are exposed to health and humanitarian risks due to the water outage.
He reported that piles of waste are accumulating on the streets and in shelters, and that many sewage ponds have accumulated on the roads.
Last March, a joint statement issued by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and the Palestinian Water Authority said that the total water available at the time in the Gaza Strip was estimated at around 10-20% of the total water available before the aggression, as this amount is subject to the availability of fuel.
The per capita share of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip of water decreased by 96.5% during the war, as citizens in the Gaza Strip can barely reach between 3-15 liters of water per day amid the ongoing war, according to the statement.
The Israeli occupation army has been waging a genocidal war against Gaza since October 7, 2023, leaving more than 38,584 martyrs, 88,881 injuries, mostly children and women, the displacement of about 1.9 million people, and more than 10,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that has claimed the lives of dozens of children, according to United Nations data.
