Muhammad Abu Qamar – Gaza In its aggression against the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation army used various types of weapons and missiles, targeting humans and the environment, which portends serious health and environmental repercussions whose effects will not stop once the aggression ends.
The occupation forces destroyed more than 85% of water sources and sanitation facilities and put them out of service after destroying 330,000 linear meters of water networks, 655,000 meters of sewage networks, and 717 water wells that facilitated the access of services to more than 2.4 million Palestinians, according to the latest statistics. Official.
Environmental risks
Among the shells used by the Israeli army is internationally banned white phosphorus, which causes severe environmental damage that threatens human life and living organisms, according to environmental expert Saeed Al-Aklouk, who confirmed that the war targeted all components of the Palestinian environment.
Al-Aklouk pointed out in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera Net that every 100 square meters of destroyed buildings produces 1,000 tons of rubble, the process of removing which releases 110 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
He added: “By generalizing these numbers to the total number of housing units destroyed by the occupation in the Gaza Strip, which exceed 200,000 housing units, this will produce 630 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent that causes global warming, which means that the dangerous impact of these wastes will not be limited to Palestine.” “But it will affect the entire region for years to come.”
Al-Aklouk believes that volatile cement particles and explosive materials in the air leave a direct and cumulative effect on the respiratory system and the human body, expecting that the coming period will witness a steady emergence of cancer and fetal deformities in the Gaza Strip.
Al-Aklouk noted an issue that he described as serious, represented by the accumulation of more than 530,000 tons of solid waste in alternative collection places, due to the occupation forces preventing access to the main waste dumps designed to prevent waste leachate from draining into the underground reservoir.
He pointed out that the accumulation of waste in residential areas will result in the spread of diseases and epidemics, especially since it contains medical waste, warning that the arrival of waste leachate, including viruses, microbes, and infectious diseases, into the underground reservoir, will expose the lives of citizens to serious diseases.
According to the environmental expert, more than 90% of the drinking wells that were monitored and contained a sterilization system were out of service, making citizens depend for drinking water on private and agricultural wells that depend directly on the groundwater reservoir and that are not subject to supervision and do not have sterilization units.
He stated that the percentage of pollution in the groundwater reservoir exceeded 40% due to the war, which led to the population receiving contaminated water that causes many diseases.
Hundreds of thousands of displaced people in tents were forced to create cesspits as an alternative to sewage lines after 90% of them were destroyed, as these pits are located close to the underground reservoir, which was saturated with wastewater as a result of cracks in the layers of the earth caused by the force of the Israeli explosions, according to Al-Aklouk.
He added: “The consequences of the Israeli aggression have created a fertile environment for the spread of epidemics, and there is a fear that cholera will spread at any moment, and then deaths will increase in numbers double what the war left behind.”
The environmental expert warned that the damage will remain until the water and sewage networks are rehabilitated and subjected to follow-up and control procedures, and this requires a long time and great potential.
Spread of epidemics
The Ministry of Health in Gaza recorded an increase in infectious diseases inside the tents of the displaced, especially skin and digestive system diseases, and thousands of cases of hepatitis, especially among children, according to the General Director of Field Hospitals, Dr. Marwan Al-Hams.
He explained in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera Net that the Ministry of Health has doubts about the presence of two new cases of polio virus after it had previously tried to contain it by vaccinating most of Gaza’s children after discovering cases of infection with the virus.
Al-Hams pointed out the spread of skin diseases among thousands of citizens in the Gaza Strip, including scabies, as the Ministry of Health recorded 3,000 cases in one of the shelters, warning of its spread throughout all areas of the Gaza Strip.
The Director General of Field Hospitals expressed his fear of the spread of seasonal influenza and rapidly contagious chest infections among the residents of Gaza, which will pose a threat to the lives of people with chronic diseases such as asthma sufferers.
He stressed that the destruction of infrastructure, the spread of sewage, and thousands of tons of garbage among camps for displaced people are the largest cause of the spread of infectious diseases, in conjunction with the scarcity of cleaning materials.
He noted that the lack of medicines in the Ministry of Health warehouses, the lack of medical staff due to targeting and arrest, and the destruction of hospitals led to an increase in diseases at a rapid pace, due to citizens not receiving adequate care.
Complex crises
The Gaza Municipality, the largest in the Gaza Strip, warned of citizens’ dependence on non-drinking water due to the Israeli occupation forces’ destruction of water desalination plants, while those that remain operational suffer from scarcity of fuel and maintenance equipment.
Assem Al-Nabih, spokesman for the municipality, said in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera Net that there are risks facing citizens due to the destruction of sewage networks and the leakage of wastewater into homes and shelter centers, as well as the fear of it reaching the underground reservoir.
He explained that the unpleasant odors emanating from the spread of waste and wastewater in the streets affect the remaining agricultural lands and increase the spread of harmful insects in most neighborhoods, making the environment fertile for the spread of epidemics and complex crises.
In this context, the Palestinian Environmental Quality Authority warned of a health and environmental catastrophe that threatens hundreds of thousands of citizens for generations to come, as a result of the damage to the infrastructure of water sources, which led to the leakage of polluted water into groundwater basins.
It called on the United Nations and the international community to take urgent measures to stop the ongoing aggression, prevent the exploitation of the environment for military purposes, and implement international laws.