A Palestinian official reported today (Friday) that there has been significant pollution in the seawater off the coast of the Gaza Strip due to damage to sewage networks as a result of the continuous Israeli bombing for the twenty-first day.
The mayor of Gaza, Yahya al-Sarraj, said in a press statement that the Israeli bombing targeted two main water and sewage lines in the Gaza Strip, which led to sewage leaking into the sea, which caused major pollution.
He added that the municipality had to restart highly saline wells to compensate for the great water scarcity, which led to increased seawater pollution.
Al-Sarraj stressed that seawater pollution poses a threat to public health and exposes residents of Gaza to diseases.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Red Crescent in the Gaza Strip called for the immediate opening of the Rafah crossing, after the collapse of the health system in the Strip due to the ongoing Israeli bombing.
The media official at the Red Crescent in Gaza, Raed Al-Nims, told reporters in Gaza that preventing fuel from reaching the Gaza Strip and the continued targeting of the vicinity of operating hospitals led to 12 hospitals, including the Indonesian hospital, being out of service.
Israel refuses to allow the entry of fuel with aid shipments, under the pretext that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) may seize it.
The Gaza Strip, with a population of 2.3 million people, is suffering under the weight of continuous Israeli air strikes after the attack by Hamas fighters on southern Israel on October 7.
The unprecedented Hamas attack caused the death of about 1,400 people, according to Israeli statistics, while the Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that more than 7,028 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli attacks.
