The three major water pipelines in the Gaza Strip are all controlled by Israel.
Since October 8, the pipeline from Israel to northern Gaza has remained closed. In the south, Israel reconnected the water supply to Khan Younis on October 15 but turned off the supply two weeks later.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has recorded that between October 21 and November 1, just 26 trucks carrying vital water and sanitation supplies entered the Gaza Strip, noting that this is nowhere near enough to meet the essential needs for the survival of the 2.3 million-strong population.
“We have no water, no sanitation, no running sewage system,” said Imm Mahmoud, who is staying at the same school. “With this lack of basic hygiene, neither the adults nor the children are comfortable.”
The 52-year-old mother has been displaced for a month and said she has no choice but to wash her family’s clothes in the sea.
But she knows that even the seawater is polluted.
“Children have been suffering from diarrhoea, coughs and colds from the pollution and swimming in the sea,” she said. “But what do you expect them to do? They have to find a way to release their energy.
Being cooped up in a school can lead to a lot of yelling and fights with their families.”
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