UNRWA: Risk of drought and disease threatens Gaza residents due to water wells stopping working

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) warned on Monday that the risk of drought and disease threatens the residents of Gaza due to the lack of fuel to operate water wells, especially in the north of the Strip, which has been subjected to an escalation in the genocide for about 50 days.

“People in Gaza face a constant risk of dehydration and disease as water wells stop working due to fuel shortages,” the agency said in a post on its X platform.

"The people of Gaza are constantly at risk of dehydration and disease due to the lack of fuel that prevents water wells from working," she added.

"In besieged northern Gaza alone, some 70,000 people are struggling to get clean water," she added.

The UN agency stated that "this basic human right remains out of reach for many."

She concluded her statement by stressing that "the ceasefire must be stopped now."

On October 5, the Israeli army launched a ground invasion of the northern Gaza Strip, under the pretext of "preventing Hamas from regaining its strength in the area."

While Palestinians say that Israel wants to occupy the northern Gaza Strip and turn it into a buffer zone after displacing its residents, under the pressure of continuous bloody bombing and a tight siege that prevents the entry of food, water and medicine.

The residents who have not left the northern Gaza Strip, despite Israel’s warnings, agree that the siege, thirst and hunger they are experiencing today is a “collective punishment and a price for their steadfastness and refusal to leave their homes.”

Repeatedly, Gaza municipalities from south to north have called on donors and UN organizations to “pressure the Israeli side to resume fuel supplies and ensure the entry of necessary machinery and spare parts to avoid a complete collapse of the service system,” including water.

She called for "pressure on Israel to allow the entry of fuel and necessary equipment," warning that the continuation of the crisis threatens to worsen the humanitarian situation in an unprecedented manner in light of the genocide.

In parallel, international organizations, including UNRWA, are repeating their warnings about the serious consequences of the drought crisis on the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and are demanding that Israel allow the entry of fuel needed to operate water wells.

On November 20, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, Hussam Abu Safiya, announced “the death of an elderly man due to severe dehydration.”

Since the beginning of the war about a year and a month ago, more than 40 people have died due to malnutrition and dehydration, most of them children, according to medical and press reports from the sector.

With American support, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, leaving about 149,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that killed dozens of children and the elderly, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.

Tel Aviv continues its massacres, ignoring the International Criminal Court’s issuance of two arrest warrants on Thursday against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Galant, on charges of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel also ignores the UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate end to the war, and the International Court of Justice's orders to take measures to prevent genocide and improve the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Anatolia