Food Truck Disaster Claims Twenty Lives Amid Despair, Hunger And Water Contamination in Gaza Strip

Ioannis Damellos

Source: Agence France-Presse 

Gaza's Civil Defense Agency reported that 20 people lost their lives last night when a truck carrying food overturned into a crowd. "The truck tipped over while hundreds of civilians were waiting for food aid in the Nuseirat area, located in the center of the Gaza Strip," stated Mahmoud Basal, a spokesman for the agency, in an interview with Agence France-Presse. In addition to the famine, residents are grappling with severe thirst due to contaminated groundwater and damaged water pipelines, putting their lives at serious risk.

Mahmoud Basal, the spokesman for Gaza's Civil Defense Agency, explained that "the truck was forced by the Israeli army to take dangerous routes that had previously been bombed and were in poor condition." 

 

The Hamas-controlled Gaza government issued a statement this morning accusing Israel of deliberately obstructing the safe passage and distribution of aid. "Despite the recent limited approval of some aid trucks, the occupation (Israel) forces drivers to use routes that are crowded with desperate civilians who have been waiting for essential goods for weeks," the statement read. 

 

The government explained that this "deliberate and criminal behavior often results in crowds of desperate people rushing the trucks and forcibly taking their cargo." They confirmed 20 dead civilians and reported dozens of injuries. 

 

When contacted by Agence France-Presse, the Israeli army stated that they are currently investigating this information.

Gaza: Contaminated Groundwater and Destroyed Water Pipelines – Residents Face Thirst as Well

Weakened by hunger, many residents of Gaza traverse long distances each day across the devastated enclave to obtain the water they need for drinking and washing. This challenging process often yields amounts that remain insufficient for maintaining health.

While global attention has centered on the famine in Gaza, exacerbated by 22 months of a devastating Israeli military campaign, humanitarian organizations emphasize that the water crisis is equally dire, as reported by the IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification).

Some water is sourced from small desalination units operated by aid organizations, but most is drawn from brackish wells, which have been further contaminated by sewage and chemicals leaching from the rubble, leading to outbreaks of diarrhea and hepatitis.

COGAT, the Israeli army agency responsible for coordinating aid in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, claims it manages two water pipelines in the Gaza Strip that supply millions of liters of water daily. However, Palestinian water officials assert that these pipelines have not been functioning recently.

Israel halted all water and electricity supplies to Gaza at the onset of the war but has since resumed some supply through the damaged pipeline network in the enclave.

Much of the water and sanitation infrastructure has been destroyed, and groundwater pumps often rely on small generators that rarely have fuel available.

COGAT stated that the Israeli army has allowed coordination with aid organizations to facilitate the entry of equipment into the enclave for maintaining water infrastructure during the conflict.

Moaz Muhaimar, 23, a university student before the war, explained that he walks about a kilometer and waits in line for two hours to collect water. He often makes this trip three times a day, using a small metal cart to transport the water back to his family’s tent along an uneven road.

"How long will we have to live like this?" he asks while pulling two large containers of brackish water for washing and two smaller ones with cleaner water for drinking.

His mother, Um Moaz, 53, emphasized the importance of the water he collects for the 20 family members living in a small cluster of tents in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip.

"The children keep coming and going. They want to drink. Who knows if we will be able to fill their containers again tomorrow?" she laments.

This struggle for water is widespread across the small, densely populated enclave, where almost everyone resides in temporary shelters or tents, lacking sanitation infrastructure and sufficient water for drinking, cooking, and washing, as diseases continue to spread.

The United Nations states that the minimum emergency level for water consumption per person is 15 liters per day for drinking, cooking, washing, and cleaning. In contrast, average daily consumption in Israel is approximately 247 liters, according to the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem.

Busra Khalidi, head of humanitarian policy for the aid agency Oxfam in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, reported that average consumption in Gaza has plummeted to just 3-5 liters a day.

Oxfam noted last week that preventable and treatable waterborne diseases are "sweeping across Gaza," with rates increasing by nearly 150% in the last three months.

Israel attributes the suffering in Gaza to Hamas and asserts that it provides sufficient aid for the enclave's 2.3 million inhabitants.

Queues For Water

The water shortage intensifies daily, prompting residents to ration what little they have between drinking and hygiene needs, according to Dennis Malis, a water and sanitation officer at the Norwegian Refugee Council.

For many Gaza residents, standing in line for water and transporting it to their tents consumes hours each day, often leading to jostling for their turn and occasional fights, as reported by locals.

Water collection frequently falls to children in the family while parents search for food and other essentials.

"Children have lost their childhood, carrying plastic containers, running behind water trucks, or going to isolated points to fill them for their families," said Munder Salem, head of water resources at the Gaza Water and Environmental Quality Authority.

Due to the difficulty of finding water, many living near the beach resort to washing in the sea.

Plans are underway for a new pipeline funded by the United Arab Emirates to supply 600,000 people in southern Gaza from a desalination plant in Egypt, but it may take several weeks to connect.

Aid organizations stress that more is needed. UNICEF spokesperson James Elder stated that long-term shortages are now deadly. "Starvation and dehydration are no longer collateral damage of the conflict; they are frontline consequences."

Oxfam's Khalidi emphasized that resolving the crisis requires a ceasefire and unimpeded access for aid agencies.

"Otherwise, we will witness people dying in Gaza from easily preventable diseases—something that is already happening before our very eyes."