Gaza’s water authority has dumped 60 million liters of partially treated and untreated sewage into the Mediterranean Sea since January 24, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report released on Wednesday. “The sewage discharge is contaminating Gaza seawater and posing health risks for bathers and consumers of seafood. The sewage flows northward to Israeli coasts, including near the Ashkelon desalination plant. Urgent studies are needed to examine the extent of the impact,” the report reads. The report’s authors blamed Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip for the Gazans’ inability to treat the sewage. “This sewage cannot be treated due to the lack of a steady electricity supply within the Gaza Strip, Israel’s restrictions on fuel imports and prohibitions on the import of materials and necessary spare parts,” according to the report.
(1) The manufactured fuel crisis has been deliberately created by Hamas, which alternates between refusing Israeli fuel imports and stealing what they do get for terrorism ops. A few days ago they helped themselves – at gunpoint – to 45,000 liters.
(2) Linking the recent lack of fuel to poor sewage management would be really persuasive if there hadn’t already been a literal river of sewage that killed 10 people in Gaza last year. They’ve been having critical problems with their sewage infrastructure for at least half a year – the consequence, some would suggest, of cannibalizing it for rocket material.
(3) Also this:
Israel Water Authority spokesman Uri Schor said the problem was not new and that Israel was doing all it could to help Gaza process its sewage. “The Palestinians have been pumping partially treated or untreated sewage water into the sea for years, and not just since the beginning of this year. The State of Israel assists in various ways to the pumping and water distribution and to the continued operation of the sewage treatment plants. That assistance includes approval to transfer most of equipment the Palestinian Authority has requested – the rest is in the process of being verified – and all the diesel fuel necessary to run the plants,” Schor said. These plants had not been affected by any cutbacks to electricity, he said.
(4) Pumping raw sewage into the Mediterranean is not a sign of crumbling infrastructure – it’s the Palestinians’ actual, literal, official infrastructure plan for getting rid of Gaza sewage. That’s been the case since at least 2005. Why treat sewage in a modern and sustainable way when you can just make it go away?
(5) And then there’s of course this factoid:
But a security source familiar with the situation told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that the vast majority of Gaza’s electrical needs were being met by Israel and Egypt. “Gaza is receiving 141 megawatts a day out of [its normal requirements of] 200 megawatts at this time from Israel and Egypt,” the source said.
So Gaza has enough electricity. And even if they didn’t have enough for everything, they still have enough to specifically run the sewage plants. And even if they didn’t have enough to specifically run the sewage plants, it would be because Hamas is stealing fuel for terrorism. And even if it wasn’t because Hamas was stealing fuel for terrorism, the sewage problems that the UN is citing have nothing to do with a lack of fuel anyway – and everything to do with idiotic Palestinian policies and incompetent implementation.
And yet somehow the UN has come up with an explanation that just happens to excoriate Israel in exactly the way that promotes the narrative that Hamas is promoting to demonize the Jewish State. Strange, that.
References:
* UN: Gaza is dumping sewage into the sea [JPost]
* Hamas Creates Humanitarian Crisis By Stealing Fuel For Terrorism, Preventing Israeli Gas Shipments, And Cutting Off Gaza Civilians. Again. (Plus: International Press, Human Rights Groups Blame Israel. Again) [MR]
* Hamas stole 45,000 liters of fuel at gunpoint today [Elder]
* Seriously, the Palestinians Just Suck At Everything [MR]
* Palestinians Prove Totally Incompetent [MR]
* Palestinians Going Global With Program To Demonize Israel For Deliberate, Hamas-Engineered Gaza Humanitarian Crisis (Updated: WaPo Hops On Board) [MR]
Previously:
* Hamas Intentionally Creating Humanitarian Disaster In Gaza – Now They’re Shutting Down The Few Medical Clinics That Are Still Working
* IDF Colonel: Hamas Creating Humanitarian Crisis. No Kidding.
* AP: Yup, Humanitarian Crisis Intentionally Caused By Hamas Is Still Israel’s Fault
