Gaza faces a man-made drought as water systems collapse, UNICEF says
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Gaza is facing a man-made drought as its water systems collapse, the United Nations' children agency said on Friday.
"Children will begin to die of thirst ... Just 40 per cent of drinking water production facilities remain functional," UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva.
"We are way below emergency standards in terms of drinking water for people in Gaza," he added.
UNICEF also reported a 50 per cent increase in children aged six months to five years admitted for treatment of malnutrition from April to May in Gaza, and half a million people going hungry.
It said the U.S.-backed aid distribution system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was "making a desperate situation worse."
On Friday, at least 25 people awaiting aid trucks or seeking aid were killed by Israeli fire south of Netzarim in central Gaza Strip, according to local health authorities. On Thursday, at least 51 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes, including 12 people who tried to approach a site operated by the GHF in the central Gaza Strip.
Elder, who was recently in Gaza, said he had many testimonials of women and children injured while trying to receive food aid, including a young boy who was wounded by a tank shell and later died of his injuries.
He said a lack of public clarity on when the sites, some of which are in combat zones, were open was causing mass casualty events.
"There have been instances where information [was] shared that a site is open, but then it's communicated on social media that they're closed," he said. "But that information was shared when Gaza's internet was down and people had no access to it."
On Wednesday, the GHF said in a statement it had distributed three million meals across three of its aid sites without an incident.
EARLIER | In March, officials said Palestinians could run out of water:
Gaza water plant running on backup power as Israel cuts electricity
3 months ago
Duration 4:35
Palestinian officials say people in Gaza could soon run out of clean drinking water. After Israel cut off the electricity supply to Gaza this weekend, a desalination plant in Deir al-Balah has been running at about 30 per cent capacity on backup generators.
On Friday, at least 12 people were killed in an airstrike on a house belonging to the Ayyash family in Deir Al-Balah, taking the day's death toll to 37.
The war was triggered when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 55,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, while displacing almost the entire population of more than two million and causing a severe hunger crisis.
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