{"id":3460,"date":"2023-10-25T10:07:53","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T14:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/food-and-water-grow-scarce-in-gaza-amid-israeli-siege-and-strikes\/25\/10\/2023\/"},"modified":"2023-10-25T10:07:53","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T14:07:53","slug":"food-and-water-grow-scarce-in-gaza-amid-israeli-siege-and-strikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/food-and-water-grow-scarce-in-gaza-amid-israeli-siege-and-strikes\/25\/10\/2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Food and Water Grow Scarce in Gaza Amid Israeli Siege and Strikes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mohammed Aborjela, 27, used to document daily life in the Gaza Strip on his Instagram account before the war, videos about a crab dish prepared along the seaside or pigeon racing in the coastal enclave.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Now, he has turned to documenting daily life under Israeli bombardment. On Sunday, he posted a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/CyqvnH5NRJx\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">story<\/a> about the daily struggle to find drinking water.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He records snippets as he walks, carrying a bright yellow jug to one of the few water stations still functioning in the southern city of Khan Younis. At the station, people \u2014 many of them children who struggle to carry the full jugs home \u2014 jostle for position in a chaotic line to fill up on well water.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThere\u2019s no more water in the taps, so we have to go get water in this way,\u201d Mr. Aborjela, a project coordinator with the development organization Youth Without Borders, told The New York Times. \u201cThe conditions for filling up water are not healthy. People are on top of one another and people are getting sick.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Gaza, blockaded by Israel and Egypt for 16 years, has long had a precarious water supply. Residents relied on groundwater filtered at water stations, desalination plants, a pipeline from Israel and bottled imports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Now, the taps have run dry, trucks are no longer refilling household water tanks, and the desalination plants have largely ground to a halt for lack of electricity and fuel. Israel imposed a siege on Gaza on Oct. 9 \u2014 cutting off water, food, electricity and fuel \u2014 in response to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/10\/10\/world\/middleeast\/israel-gaza-war-hamas-deaths-killings.html\" title=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the attack on Israel<\/a> two days earlier by Hamas, the armed Palestinian group that rules the strip.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Survival in Gaza now means not only escaping death from the thousands of Israeli airstrikes that have rained down over the past two weeks, but also finding enough to eat and drink. The United Nations has called the situation a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/en\/story\/2023\/10\/1142652\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">humanitarian catastrophe<\/a> and has warned that all of Gaza is in danger of running out of water as a result of the Israeli siege.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some Gazans are skipping multiple meals just to ensure their children are able to eat. Others have resorted to drinking brackish water or mixing potable water with contaminated water.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The streets are filled with people carrying jugs or bottles to fill whenever they have the chance. The lucky ones have donkey-drawn carts: Few vehicles are on the streets these days as what little fuel is left in Gaza is mostly reserved for ambulances to ferry the dead and injured and to run hospital generators.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Israeli drones buzz in the sky overhead and airstrikes regularly pound the crowded and impoverished territory that is home to more than two million Palestinians. Even after the Israeli military ordered more than a million of them to evacuate the northern half of Gaza and head south ahead of an expected ground invasion, the south has not escaped deadly bombardments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Every morning, Alee Dababish, 19, leaves the home where she and her family have sought shelter in southern Gaza in search of the day\u2019s water and bread. Her family, including four young children, have been in Khan Younis for 11 days after fleeing their home in Gaza City in the north when airstrikes hit the buildings around them, she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe come here even as we\u2019re afraid they might strike the bakery, but we have no other choice. We have to come here to feed the children,\u201d Ms. Dababish said on Tuesday while standing in a line with her sister. \u201cWe know at any moment they can strike the bakery or around the bakery.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The head of the Hamas government\u2019s media office, Salama Maarouf, said in a statement on Wednesday that Israeli airstrikes had destroyed a bakery at Al Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, hours after UNRWA, the U.N. agency that aids Palestinian refugees, supplied it with flour sacks to make bread for tens of thousands of displaced people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Four aid convoys that reached Gaza from neighboring Egypt in recent days have brought in water and food.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Maarouf went on to accuse Israel of bombing 10 bakeries across the Gaza Strip as of Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Asked about these allegations, the Israeli military said it \u201conly and specifically strikes military targets. The allegations to the contrary are abhorrent and spread disinformation that put civilians at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Dababish said she sometimes waited in line for hours to buy bread and had seen fights break out. Sometimes she walks from bakery to bakery just to buy a loaf. Some don\u2019t have gas to power their ovens while at others the line is too long.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And then there are the days when she can\u2019t find any bread to buy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At home she and the other adults often skip meals and go to bed hungry in order to ensure the children can eat, she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The water situation is just as dire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe drink salty water. Everyone is drinking salty water,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cEvery day, we live this struggle,\u201d she added. \u201cThe important thing is for this war to end and for us to return to our homes in Gaza City and see who has remained alive and who has been martyred and who has been injured.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Last week, after days of acute water shortages in Gaza, Israel agreed to restore water to a pipeline that served a southern part of the territory. But that has done little to relieve the water crisis and the daily search.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The U.N. says the water coming in aid shipments is a fraction of the bottled water that Gaza needs on a daily basis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Israel so far has barred the humanitarian aid convoys from bringing fuel, which is needed to power water facilities and desalination plants.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Yahya al-Qahwi, 30, said on Tuesday that he and his family have had to cut back on bathing and use water only for crucial necessities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAt 6 a.m., we set out and go around to find water and fill up. We don\u2019t have any water at home,\u201d he said, standing next to a horse-drawn cart where he had piled on a large black water tank and two smaller yellow jugs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Others at the same water station in Khan Younis said they were only able to bathe once a week now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">They cannot afford to use too much water on any given day because there is no assurance that they will be able to fill up the next morning. Sometimes by the time Mr. al-Qahwi gets to water stations around the town, their power will have cut and there\u2019s no more water. So he moves on to the next spot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe go from one station to another,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes we\u2019re not finding salty or drinkable water. We are exhausted just finding anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/10\/25\/world\/middleeast\/gaza-food-water-siege.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mohammed Aborjela, 27, used to document daily life in the Gaza Strip on his Instagram account before the war, videos about a<br \/><button class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/food-and-water-grow-scarce-in-gaza-amid-israeli-siege-and-strikes\/25\/10\/2023\/\">Read More &rsaquo;<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3460"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}