Bulldozers sift through piles of rubbish but angry residents find little relief as their children sift through trash on the streets of Gaza, in a growing sanitation crisis that is adding to the misery of war.
“We can’t sleep, we can’t eat, we can’t drink, the smell is killing us,” said Ahmed Shaloula, one of the many displaced Palestinians, who is from Gaza City and lives in Khan Younis.
Palestinians have faced one crisis after another since conflict erupted between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in October. In addition to Israeli airstrikes, shelling and a ground offensive, Palestinians are plagued by shortages of food, fuel, water, medicine and functioning hospitals.
Trash is piling up in the impoverished enclave — one of the most densely populated places in the world — that has been reduced to rubble. At night, people stay awake fighting off mosquitoes and some are contracting diseases like scabies, Shaloula said.
“We ask Khan Younis Municipality to remove the waste.”
But the appeal of government services is an illusion in Gaza after nine months of war that erupted when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
Israel responded with an offensive that killed more than 38,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities.
Khan Younis is the second largest city in Gaza, with 2.3 million inhabitants.
War damage and fuel shortages have created a waste problem, said Omar Matar, who is in charge of solid waste removal in Khan Younis municipality.
“The accumulation of waste has caused bad smells, the spread of insects and rodents, in addition to the leakage of liquids from the waste into the underground water reservoir,” he said.
The reservoir is the main source of drinking water for the residents of Khan Younis. Drinking water is not available in most of Gaza.
“This dumping area was not designed properly to prevent liquid waste from leaking into groundwater,” Matar said.
Almost the entire population of Gaza has been displaced amid the new Israeli offensive
Source: CNN Brasil
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