I promised earlier that we would try to fact-check the Israeli ambassador’s claims that Israel is not responsible for water and electricity in Gaza.
Amir Maimon, Israel’s ambassador to Australia, told the National Press Club this afternoon that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “fair” and not wholly Israel’s fault.
Maimon claimed Israel provided less than 10 per cent of Gaza’s water via a pipe, and supply was resumed last week. He said the remaining water came from two desalination plants that he believed were still operating.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in its daily briefing from yesterday (its most recent update) paints a different picture.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), by far the largest humanitarian provider in Gaza, warned that unless fuel is allowed into Gaza immediately, the agency will be forced to halt all operations as of tonight, October 25.
The UN said Gaza has been under a full electricity blackout since October 11, rendering hospitals and water facilities dependent on backup generators run by fuel. The UN also said bakeries could not operate without fuel.
The briefing says one of the three seawater desalination plants in Khan Younis resumed operations at less than 7 per cent of capacity on October 21. This was made possible after a UN aid agency retrieved fuel from a storage facility in Gaza, and the other two plants remain non-operational.
This plant is now producing about 450 cubic metres per day and the water was being trucked south of Wadi Gaza to serve 40,000 displaced people a day. Israel has told Gazan civilians to evacuate to this zone.
The UN says Gazans are drinking water with over 3,000 milligrams per litre of salt content from agricultural wells.
“This poses an immediate health risk, raising hypertension levels, especially in babies under six months, pregnant women, and people with kidney disease,” the UN says.
“The use of saline groundwater also increases the risk of diarrhoea and cholera.”
Maimon said 30 aid trucks had entered Gaza via Rafah, on the Egyptian border, while the UN said it was 54 since Saturday. Some of the aid trucks have carried bottled water and food.
But UN officials say about 100 aid trucks would be needed daily to meet essential needs in Gaza, which is home to 2.3 million people. Some 1.4 million of those are now homeless.
Maimon also claimed nine of the 10 electricity lines in Gaza were damaged by misfired Hamas rockets. We have not been able to fact-check this claim.
With Reuters