Gaza taps are running dry as water shortage reaches crisis point
The taps in the besieged Gaza Strip are running dry, and residents are scrambling to save every last drop of water as the shortage reaches a crisis point.
Dunia Aburahma said her family has rationed supplies, allowing her only a quart of drinking water per day.
“I haven’t taken a shower for four days now,” said Aburahma, 22, an architecture student who fled northern Gaza with her family last week ahead of Israel’s threatened ground invasion and is now living with relatives in Zawaida in central Gaza.
After Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel left at least 1,400 people dead and about 200 people taken hostage, Israel announced a full blockade of Gaza, preventing food, water and fuel from entering the area, which is home to 2 million people. More than 2,800 people have been killed in Gaza, and about 12,000 more have been wounded.
The lack of water is so dire that surgeons at Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital have reverted to chemical disinfectants.
“Water pressure down in hospital to the point we can’t sterilize instruments,” Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a surgeon at the hospital, said in a message over WhatsApp. [Continue reading…]