{"id":362960,"date":"2026-08-02T04:10:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T04:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/activist\/the-urgent-water-crisis-in-gaza\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T04:10:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T04:10:36","slug":"the-urgent-water-crisis-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362960","title":{"rendered":"The Urgent Water Crisis in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Twenty-four-year-old Kareem Hassan Awad Al-Tanah woke up one morning in July 2024 feeling too weak to work. He had been spending his days selling children\u2019s toys out of a stall on Gaza\u2019s coast in Az-Zawayda, where he had arrived two months earlier after fleeing the Israeli military\u2019s invasion<\/a> of Rafah. When he tried to open his stand that day, every movement hurt, so he went back to his family\u2019s tent and tried to sleep. The temperature hovered just under 90 degrees Fahrenheit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like all my bones were broken,\u201d Al-Tanah says. \u201cLater that day, my sister wanted to drink, so I handed her my bottle of water. She looked at me and shouted, \u2018Do you want to make me sick?\u2019 When I asked her why, she told me that my face and eyes had turned yellow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al-Tanah had developed regaan<\/em>, the local term used<\/a> to describe jaundice. The condition causes the skin and eyes to turn yellow due to a buildup of bilirubin<\/a> in the blood and in many cases is associated with hepatitis A<\/a>, a disease tied to contaminated water that has spread widely<\/a> in Gaza. He spent the next ten days in bed unable to move and suffering from headaches, diarrhea, and periods of delirium. Now, two years later, he feels like he still hasn\u2019t fully recovered.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven after I started feeling better, my body wasn\u2019t the same,\u201d Al-Tanah says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because Israel had cut off<\/a> power to the nearby water desalination plant,<\/a> Al-Tanah spent his first two months in Az-Zawayda drinking non-potable water, which was likely contaminated and caused his illness. For Palestinians in Gaza, repeated displacement, damaged water networks, fuel shortages, and the collapse of sanitation systems have transformed water access into one of the Strip\u2019s most urgent crises. According to the United Nations, the Israeli military has damaged or destroyed<\/a> nearly 90 percent of water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure in Gaza and blocked<\/a> many clean water supplies from entering, forcing Palestinians to rely on unsafe water sources for drinking, cleaning, and bathing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Only four major desalination plants are currently operating<\/a> in Gaza. Because much of the region\u2019s piping infrastructure has been blocked or badly damaged, municipalities and humanitarian organizations must collect and transport water from these plants using tanker trucks to nearby communities at the more than 2,600<\/a> water distribution points across Gaza. It is estimated that 63 percent of households cannot access<\/a> more than 1.5 gallons of drinking water per day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza began in October 2023, seventy-six-year-old Fathiya Salman Shallah had undergone three separate procedures to break down urinary stones<\/a> in her kidneys. Her doctor told her to drink mineral water<\/a>, which can help prevent crystals from forming in a person\u2019s kidneys and which she could easily find in the market. She would also buy malt drinks, barley-based beverages often consumed<\/a> for their perceived soothing effect on the kidneys.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After the war began, malt drinks became impossible to find throughout Gaza, and mineral water was sold at extremely high prices.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI prioritized spending money on flour and basic food supplies rather than mineral water and malt drinks,\u201d Shallah says.<\/p>\n

By early 2024, water pumping and desalination systems serving Gaza City stopped functioning due to fuel shortages and widespread destruction of water infrastructure. Shallah was later displaced further south to Deir al-Balah where, due to the large number of displaced people, desalination facilities have been under pressure to produce water as quickly as possible to supply the demand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With little access to clean water, Shallah has had to drink non-potable water, which can increase<\/a> the risk of kidney stone formation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJust by taking a sip of that water, I knew it would lead to serious consequences, as I could taste its salty flavor,\u201d Shallah says.<\/p>\n

To make matters worse, she says, her grandchildren have not been able to swim in the sea on Gaza\u2019s coast\u2014damaged wastewater infrastructure has caused<\/a> sewage to flow straight into the sea, spreading harmful bacteria and viruses and contaminating local seafood.<\/p>\n

Israeli forces have also targeted water distribution sites. In 2025, Doctors Without Borders was forced to shut down<\/a> at least 137 water distribution points due to intense military blockades and localized bombardment from the Israeli military. In April 2026, two water truck drivers were killed<\/a> by Israeli fire while working at a water distribution point.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor thousands of displaced families [like mine], these water trucks remain the primary source of potable water,\u201d says Mohammed Abu Al-Mehza, a twenty-four-year-old accountant living in southern Gaza. \u201cWe have no other alternative in the whole Strip.\u201d<\/p>\n

In January 2024, after being besieged for a month in Gaza City, Al-Mehza and several of his neighbors left their building to walk to a nearby water truck. They had spent their time under siege pumping non-potable water with energy from the building\u2019s solar panels. On the walk back, Al-Mehza says he heard an Israeli tank and bulldozer approaching the group from behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was terrified of being targeted, but I couldn\u2019t leave the gallon behind,\u201d Al-Mehza says. \u201cIt was the only amount of potable water we could find in weeks, so I ran, carrying the gallon in my hand. I do not know how I survived, but several people near me were killed or injured.\u201d<\/p>\n

For many Palestinians in Gaza, clean water is not guaranteed, and instead something for which they must constantly search. Access to potable water remains uncertain, while damaged infrastructure, limited fuel supplies, and overcrowded living conditions continue to affect daily life.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the beginning of the genocide, the water has never been truly clean,\u201d Al-Mehza says. \u201cAlmost every week, someone in my family suffers from a stomach infection.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twenty-four-year-old Kareem Hassan Awad Al-Tanah woke up one morning in July 2024 feeling too weak to work. He had been spending his days selling children\u2019s toys out of a stall on Gaza\u2019s coast in Az-Zawayda, where he had arrived two months earlier after fleeing the Israeli military\u2019s invasion of Rafah. When he tried to open […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":362961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12022],"tags":[11649,16930,14006,184252,25641,28460,638],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-362960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activist","tag-crisis","tag-dispatches","tag-gaza","tag-khaled-al-qershali","tag-middle-east","tag-urgent","tag-water"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Urgent Water Crisis in Gaza - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=362960\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Urgent Water Crisis in Gaza - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Twenty-four-year-old Kareem Hassan Awad Al-Tanah woke up one morning in July 2024 feeling too weak to work. 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