KHAN YUNIS, (PIC)
The water and sewage facilities and pumps as well as the collection and disposal of garbage have been disrupted in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, due to fuel depletion, according to the municipality.
The municipality said in a statement on Saturday that the city had run out of fuel a week ago as a result of Israel’s ban on its entry.
The municipality warned that blocking fuel supplies would lead to the cessation of basic municipal services in Khan Yunis, including water, sanitation, and waste services.
It explained that this will lead to the spread of environmental and health disasters resulting from the suspension of sewage stations and accordingly the flow of sewage in the streets and the spread of more diseases and epidemics among citizens.
The municipality further elaborated that it was not possible to operate water wells and desalination plants, which deprives more than 1,200,000 people, including the displaced, of their most basic rights to obtain drinking and clean water.
The municipality of Khan Yunis called on the international community, human rights organizations and donors to urgently intervene to end the Israeli war on the Strip, to pressure to resume providing local bodies with fuel supplies needed to operate water wells, desalination stations, sewage pumps and mechanisms of waste collection and disposal.
It also called for obliging the Israeli occupation authorities to allow the entry of equipment and spare parts necessary to operate fuel stations, which would spare the collapse of the municipal services system which has been greatly affected during the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.
