Israel\u2019s war on Gaza has not only razed entire neighbourhoods to the ground, displaced families multiple times and decimated medical facilities, but also poisoned the very ground and water on which Palestinians depend.<\/p>\n
Four weeks into a fragile ceasefire, which Israel has violated daily, the scale of the environmental devastation is becoming painfully clear.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n In Gaza City\u2019s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, what was once a lively community has become a wasteland. Homes lie in ruins, and an essential water source, once a rainwater pond, now festers with sewage and debris. For many displaced families, it is both home and hazard.<\/p>\n Umm Hisham, pregnant and displaced, trudges through the foul water with her children. They have nowhere else to go.<\/p>\n \u201cWe took refuge here, around the Sheikh Radwan pond, with all the sufferings you could imagine, from mosquitoes to sewage with rising levels, let alone the destruction all around. All this poses a danger to our lives and the lives of our children,\u201d she said, speaking to Al Jazeera\u2019s Ibrahim Alkhalili.<\/p>\n The pond, designed to collect rainwater and channel it to the sea, now holds raw sewage after Israeli air attacks destroyed the pumps. With electricity and sanitation systems crippled, contaminated water continues to rise, threatening to engulf nearby homes and tents.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no doubt there are grave impacts on all citizens: Foul odours, insects, mosquitoes. Also, foul water levels have exceeded 6 metres [20ft] high without any protection; the fence is completely destroyed, with high possibility for any child, woman, old man, or even a car to fall into this pond,\u201d said Maher Salem, a Gaza City municipal officer speaking to Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n Local officials warn that stagnant water could cause disease outbreaks, especially among children. Yet for many in Gaza, there are no alternatives.<\/p>\n \u201cFamilies know that the water they get from the wells and from the containers or from the water trucks is polluted and contaminated \u2026 but they don\u2019t have any other choice,\u201d said Al Jazeera\u2019s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City.<\/p>\n At the COP30 Climate Summit in Brazil, Palestinian Ambassador Ibrahim al-Zeben described the crisis as an environmental catastrophe intertwined with Israel\u2019s genocide.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no secret that Gaza is suffering because of the genocide that Israel continues to wage, a war that has created nearly a quarter of a million victims and produced more than 61 million tonnes of rubble, some of which is contaminated with hazardous materials,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn addition, the deliberate destruction of sewage and water networks has led to the contamination of groundwater and coastal waters. Gaza now faces severe risks to public health, and environmental risks are increasing,\u201d al-Zeben added.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s attacks have also \u201cdestroyed\u201d much of the enclave\u2019s agricultural land, leaving it \u201cin a state of severe food insecurity and famine with food being used as a weapon\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n In September, a UN report warned freshwater supplies in Gaza are \u201cseverely limited and much of what remains is polluted\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe collapse of sewage treatment infrastructure, the destruction of piped systems and the use of cesspits for sanitation have likely increased contamination of the aquifer that supplies much of Gaza with water,\u201d the report by the United Nations Environment Programme noted.<\/p>\n Back in Sheikh Radwan, the air hangs thick with rot and despair. \u201cWhen every day is a fight to find water, food, and bread,\u201d Mahmoud said, \u201csafety becomes secondary.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Israel\u2019s war on Gaza has not only razed entire neighbourhoods to the ground, displaced families multiple times and decimated medical facilities, but also poisoned the very ground and water on which Palestinians depend. Four weeks into a fragile ceasefire, which Israel has violated daily, the scale of the environmental devastation is becoming painfully clear. Recommended […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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Destroyed water infrastructure<\/h2>\n
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