GAZA, July 28, 2011, (WAFA)- A decades-old agricultural water well was destroyed in an Israeli military airstrike, which also injured seven people, including four children, this week in Beit Hanoun, a town north of the Gaza Strip, Thursday said an Oxfam weekly report between July 17 and 23.
The airstrike happened on July 17 at around 3:00 am, and also damaged water tanks serving up to 60 people in the neighborhood.
The Emergency Water Sanitation and Hygiene group (EWASH), a coalition of 30 humanitarian organizations in the occupied Palestinian territory including Oxfam, has documented the destruction caused by the Israeli airstrike.
“This is not the first time this year that Israeli airstrikes hit water and sanitation infrastructure,” said Ghada Snunu, EWASH’s advocacy task force officer in Gaza. “Last March, the Khuza’a municipality warehouse was hit by an airstrike destroying a large quantity of essential water and sanitation materials and spare parts to the value of over US$60,000. In April, the Al-Mintar water reservoir in Al-Quba area of Gaza City was also hit in an airstrike, leaving 30,000 people in eastern Gaza city with no water for three days.”
“Israel as the occupying power has to ensure that the Palestinians have access to essential services as required by international law. What we keep witnessing is the opposite – civilian infrastructure, particular water-related facilities, are often hit during Israeli airstrikes depriving people of indispensable services,” Snunu added.
Water and wastewater infrastructure is already under severe strain in Gaza because of the heavy restrictions imposed by Israel on entry of construction materials necessary for repair and maintenance.
This has led to vital projects being cancelled or delayed, sometimes for years, compounding further poor conditions for the 1.6 million Palestinians in Gaza.
Damage to and destruction of water-related infrastructure is not new to the conflict. The regular destruction of such facilities is common in the West Bank’s Area C with 20 rainwater collection cisterns having been demolished by the Israeli authorities so far this year. During Israel’s ‘Operation Cast Lead’, the Israeli military destroyed more than 30 kilometers of water networks – the equivalent of more than double the width of the strip at its widest – and 11 water wells. In 2001, Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials signed a Joint Declaration for Keeping the Water Infrastructure out of the Cycle of Violence at Gaza’s Erez border crossing but Israel has so far failed to live up to this pledge.
F.R.
