Israeli destruction of waste management facilities leaves displaced Palestinians exposed to widespread pollution and disease
Piles of garbage are accumulating in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on 6 May 2024 (Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Reuters)
Piles of garbage in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on 6 May 2024 (Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Reuters)
By Abdallah al-Naami in Deir al-Balah, occupied Palestine
Magdy al-Zaanen is often woken up at night by the cries of his two children.
Sleeping in a makeshift tent on the pavement of Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, they regularly get bitten by mosquitoes, leaving them in great pain.
“My wife and I pretend to put medicine on the bites to trick them to go back to sleep,” says al-Zaanen.
Mosquito bites are just one symptom of the growing environmental and health crisis that he and nearly two million internally displaced Palestinians in Gaza are facing since Israel began its war on the strip in October.
Nearly eight months of relentless Israeli bombardment and siege has all but destroyed infrastructure, waste management facilities, and the Palestinian civil defence.
Poster Comment:
Claire's Observations; you have to understand; the spread of opportunistic diseases, particularly among kids, is precisely the outcome Israel wishes to see here, as their destruction of waste management facilities attests. After all, you don't have to murder a kid with a bullet or bomb, if an opportunistic disease will do it for you!!!