Waiting for the Worst in the Gaza Strip
As feared, Covid-19 is steadily spreading through the Gaza Strip, with the Ministry of Health reporting a total of 3298 cases and 22 deaths by October 3.
While the pandemic commands the attention of the beleaguered health system, a recent report, ‘It Takes Time to Unravel the Ecology of War in Gaza,’ and a new video, ‘Gaza Waiting for the Worst,’ indicate that the virus – however deadly –may not be the biggest long-term health threat facing Gaza’s residents.
Rather, on a day-to-day basis, children especially are being damaged for life by severe environmental factors that cannot begin to be dealt with until Israel’s 14-year-long siege is lifted.
The report, published in the September 14th issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health by researchers from Gaza, Qatar, Finland and Italy, analyzes the impact on infants, young children and their mothers of heavy metal contamination caused by Israeli military offensives in 2008-9, 2012 and 2014.
The Gaza Strip is littered with toxic war remnants of shelling, bombs and missiles that have contaminated the soil with a range of heavy metals. Some, like arsenic and cadmium, are carcinogenic; some, including lead, are harmful to the brain; and some, like mercury and uranium, harm the development the fetus.
The study, conducted over an 8 year period (from 2011-2019), found a growth in birth defects, in preterm and severely underweight babies, and in the stunting of young children. Hair samples taken from mothers, infants and children showed contamination persisted for years.
When you add to that the pollution of water, untreated sewage lakes and general contamination of the environment depicted in ‘Gaza Waiting for the Worst’, it’s hard to imagine the Gaza Strip becoming livable again.
Because Gaza does not have enough electricity or fuel to operate sewage treatment plants, some 110,000 cubic meters of untreated wastewater are dumped into the sea everyday, threatening public health and the sustainability of the marine ecosystem. According to the World Health Organization, water- born diseases account for more than a quarter of all illnesses in the Gaza Strip. And most crucially for the long-term picture, Gaza’s sole aquifer, into which contaminated seawater has intruded, is about to be irreversibly damaged.
The collective punishment imposed by Israel’s blockade with US backing is stunting children who make up half of Gaza’s population and imperiling the lives of all of its residents. We must demand that it be lifted.
Nancy Murray
Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine
Israel's 2014 missile attacks depicted by a child in Gaza.