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France 24 · 2023-10-11
France 24, by Cyrielle Cabot, on the total siege of Gaza in October 2023. Omar Shaban, director of Pal-Think, who had reached Cairo two days earlier, says nothing had entered or left Gaza for more than 24 hours, that Israel “wants to punish the population”, and that water was already a problem, with a risk of dysentery and cholera.
France 24, by Cyrielle Cabot, on the total siege of Gaza in October 2023. Omar Shaban, director of Pal-Think, who had reached Cairo two days earlier, says nothing had entered or left Gaza for more than 24 hours, that Israel “wants to punish the population”, and that water was already a problem, wit…
As all access to the Gaza Strip is now cut off, the situation appears to be worsening hour by hour for the 2.3 million inhabitants of the Palestinian enclave. Witnesses and NGOs are warning of a population "cut off from the world," soon to be deprived of water and food, and are calling for the establishment of a humanitarian corridor.
Published on: 11/10/2023 - 18:39
"No electricity, no food, no gas," Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had declared on Monday, October 9, when announcing a "complete" siege of the Gaza Strip, in retaliation for Hamas's unprecedented attacks since October 7. That grim promise already appears to have been kept, according to several testimonies collected by France 24.
"Everything is closed, nothing has come in or gone out for more than 24 hours. Food stocks are almost empty, water is already lacking," says Omar Shaban. From Cairo, Egypt, where he has taken refuge for the past two days, the director of the Gaza-based think tank Pal-Think for Strategic Studies was still able on Wednesday morning to receive some news from his relatives and family who remained in the Palestinian enclave. News that is becoming increasingly sporadic.
"Our teams on the ground tell us that they no longer have any food supplies, that water will run out very quickly, and that they are extremely worried," adds Olivier Routeau, Director of Operations for the NGO Première Urgence Internationale, speaking from Paris. "And now the electricity is going to stop and we will gradually lose contact with them."
The concern of both men was confirmed in the early afternoon. At the very moment when, at the entrances to Gaza's supermarkets, lines were growing longer with families coming to stock up on canned goods, rice, and flour for fear of shortages, the head of the Palestinian enclave's Energy Authority announced that the sole power plant had shut down for lack of fuel.
## All access points closed
The some 2.3 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, a 360 km² strip of land wedged between the Mediterranean and a massive wall of concrete and fencing built by Israel, have lived under a land blockade since 2007. Over the past sixteen years, their daily lives have depended to a very large extent on the delivery of goods through Israeli crossing points—Erez in the north and Kerem Shalom in the south—and the one not controlled by the Hebrew state, on the Egyptian border, Rafah. The latter was bombed three times by the Israelis on Monday and Tuesday.
"Gaza is one of the most densely populated territories on the planet. We do have some fish, some fields, but by no means enough to feed the entire population. There is no way to survive without these imports," insists Omar Shaban. But since Monday, the crossing points have remained strictly closed to both people and goods. "Until now, Israel made sure that we could import the bare minimum needed to survive. But after the events of the last few days, it wants to punish the population," he denounces.
The move to a "complete siege," accompanied by massive bombardments since Sunday, will worsen an already "disastrous" humanitarian situation that is going to "deteriorate exponentially," warned United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday.
## "The population will soon be very thirsty"
Another major problem: access to water. The Gaza Strip continually suffers from poor access to drinking water, with around 90% of the water present in the territory unfit for consumption, according to UN figures. The only source of fresh water is an underground reserve by the sea, a coastal aquifer, particularly vulnerable to seawater intrusion and pollution. The water drawn from it is therefore almost constantly brackish and polluted.
To address this, Gazans can normally rely on three large desalination plants and nearly 70 small private stations. These make it possible to produce up to 37 million liters of fresh water per day, or 18 liters per person—a figure still far from ordinary consumption, with the WHO estimating that 100 liters of water are necessary for daily use. Water coming from Israel, accounting for around 10% of Gaza's annual consumption, complements this supply.
"Water was already a problem and many people contract illnesses such as dysentery or cholera because they drink poor-quality water," says Omar Shaban. "Now, without electricity to run the plants and without access to Israeli water, this is going to get even worse. The population will soon be very thirsty, certainly as early as tomorrow [Thursday, editor's note]," he continues. Not to mention that the Israeli bombardments are further aggravating the situation by destroying numerous facilities and water pipelines.
## "Prohibited" under international law
To the consequences of this siege must be added the continuous strikes carried out by Israel. Since Saturday and the launch of Operation "Iron Sword" by the Hebrew state in retaliation for the Hamas attack, more than 260,000 Palestinians have been displaced inside Gaza, according to the UN. Among them, more than 175,000 have found refuge in United Nations schools. This is the largest population displacement "since the 50-day escalation (during) the hostilities of 2014," the Organization specifies.
For their part, several NGOs are warning about the health situation in the enclave, calling for a humanitarian corridor to support the medical response, while the UN recalls that Israel’s total siege of the Gaza Strip is “prohibited” under international humanitarian law. “The situation is catastrophic. Our mission is to assist the people of Gaza, but today we no longer can because we are no longer able to get humanitarian aid in,” denounces Olivier Routeau of Première Urgence Internationale.
“The hospital is very difficult to access because of the strikes. We are now running out of medicines and equipment. There must be about four days of electricity left,” he continues. “Yet a hospital without electricity is a hospital that can no longer provide care and cannot even preserve bodies.” More than 1,000 people have died, according to a new toll issued Wednesday by the Gaza authorities.
“This is the first time I have felt afraid to go out and see the destruction of my city. I am truly afraid,” says Huda, a 30-year-old resident of Gaza, in messages sent with the last minutes of battery on her mobile phone. “I think about the number of years Gaza will need to recover and rebuild. It may take decades.” “Today, no one in Gaza feels they will survive. I have never been as hopeless as I am right now.”
Text © France 24 — archived here with attribution to the source. — Machine translation for archival reference. — Original source