THE UK’s Oxfam said yesterday that Israel has already destroyed more than 80% of the water and sewerage networks in the Gaza Strip, leading to catastrophic health conditions.
Klemens Laguarda, the humanitarian coordinator for Oxfam in the Gaza Strip, said in a statement on Tuesday: ‘Now that the bombs have stopped, we are just beginning to realise the magnitude of the enormous destruction.’
The organisation explained that Israel has destroyed 1,650 kilometres of water and sewerage networks.
It noted that residents in northern Gaza and the city of Rafah in the southern part of the Gaza Strip are living on only 5.7 litres of water per day, which is less than 7% of pre-war levels. This is hardly enough for a single flush of a toilet.
Oxfam has expressed its hopes for a continued ceasefire and the flow of fuel and aid so that Palestinians can rebuild their lives.
In the same context, Layla Bakr, the regional director of the United Nations Population Fund for Arab countries, said that the level of destruction from the war on the Gaza Strip is visible as far as the eye can see.
An assessment issued by the United Nations, the European Union, and the World Bank showed that rebuilding the Gaza Strip and the West Bank will require $53.2 billion over the next ten years, of which $20 billion is needed in the first three years.
Meanwhile, Israeli occupation police raided the house of Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, head of the Higher Islamic Council in Occupied Jerusalem, and questioned him on Tuesday evening.
Local sources said that the Israeli occupation authority in Jerusalem decided to suspend the order to summon Sheikh Sabri for a hearing at the Israeli higher court, which was supposed to decide to banish him from the Al-Aqsa Mosque for six more months.
The Israeli police informed Sheikh Sabri of their intent to ban his entry to the Mosque last August.
They had decided to ban him from Al-Aqsa after he mourned martyr Ismail Haneyya, head of Hamas’s political bureau, during a Friday khutba (sermon).
At the time, the Hamas Movement condemned the Israeli move against Sheikh Sabri as ‘arbitrary’ and ‘aimed at punishing him for his national and Islamic role in defending Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque against Judaisation attempts.’
The world is changing fast and is being revolutionised at an express rate.
The 38th African Union Summit, which was held for two days in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, said in its final statement that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians and must be prosecuted internationally. And the final statement of the Arab League leaders meeting also emphasised the need to prosecute the Israeli war criminals for crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.
The world is rapidly being revolutionised! Steve Rosenberg, BBC Russia editor, stated yesterday: ‘When he penned his eyewitness account of the 1917 Russian Revolution, American journalist John Reed famously titled it “Ten Days That Shook The World”.
He added: ‘But ten days is too long for Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. They’ve shaken things up in a week.
‘It is a week that has upended traditional alliances, left Europe and the Ukraine scrambling to respond, raised fears for European security, and put Russia where it wants to be: at the top table of global politics, without having made any concessions to get there.’
He added: ‘For so long, Europe had gone around all puffed up, thinking of itself as the civilised world and as a Garden of Eden. It failed to notice that it had lost its trousers. Now its old comrade across the Atlantic has pointed that out.’
The working class of the world, already under attack by the capitalist ruling class, has had an example put before it of the feet of clay of the capitalist ruling classes. Now is the time to organise sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International in every country to organise and lead the victory of the World Socialist revolution!
There is not a moment to lose. Now is the time to build a mass Young Socialist movement to provide the lead for the British Socialist Revolution!
