In the besieged Gaza Strip, 2.3 million people don’t have access to clean, running water because of Israel’s decision to cut off water and electricity to the enclave while pounding it with airstrikes.
Palestinians flee from northern Gaza to the south after the Israeli army issued an unprecedented evacuation warning to a population of over 1 million people in northern Gaza and Gaza City to seek refuge in the south ahead of a possible Israeli ground invasion, Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. – As Israel pounds the Gaza Strip with airstrikes, Laila Abu Samhadaneh, 65, is anxious about water.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do tomorrow," Abu Samhadaneh said from her three-room home in the southern town of Rafah, which turned into a de facto shelter aftersouth. She said she rations just a few liters among dozens of friends and relatives each day."We’re going crazy.
In normal times, the coastal enclave — which has struggled under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007 — relies on Israel for one-third of all available drinking water, the territory’s water authority says. Quenching thirst has become more difficult in the past day, even for those with means to shell out for bottled water. It took 35-year-old Noor Swirki two hours on Saturday to find a box of six bottles she will try to stretch throughout the coming days. She took her first shower in a week Saturday, using a cup of polluted tap water and splashing it over her husband and two children before rubbing the remaining moisture on her skin.
The World Health Organization says that 50 to 100 liters per day per person are needed to ensure proper hydration and sanitation. The U.S. National Academies of Science and Medicine say men need to drink about 3.7 liters and women need about 2.7 liters per day to be adequately hydrated.
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