This Child In Gaza Has Been Filmed Drinking Dirty Rainwater From A Puddle Due To Lack Of Clean Water
A video circulating online shows a young Palestinian boy in Gaza collecting and drinking rainwater from a puddle on a muddy street due to the lack of clean water caused by Israel’s war on and blockade of the Gaza Strip.
A Palestinian boy in Gaza has been filmed drinking dirty rainwater from a puddle on a muddy street due to the lack of clean water caused by Israel’s war on and blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The video, captured by Anadolu Agency on Tuesday Feb. 6, shows a boy named Abdusselam Keskin drinking from a muddy puddle near his family’s destroyed house as he has no other source for drinking water.
“Do you see this pool of water? I would strain it so my children can drink from it,” the boy’s father told Anadolu. “No water, no electricity, there is nothing. I bring a bucket, separate the dirt from the water and give it to my children to drink.”
The video, which was shared by multiple accounts on Instagram, has gone viral, gaining more than seven million views on prominent account @eye.on.palestine.
Since it declared war on Hamas on Oct. 7, Israel has imposed complete blockade on the strip, allowing only limited amounts of aid in.
Israel’s airstrikes and ground offensive has forced some 1.9 million people – about 85% of Gaza’s population – to leave their homes and destroyed or damaged more than 60% of Gaza’s infrastructure, according to the UN.
More than a million Palestinians are crammed into the south of the Gaza Strip and facing acute shortage of food, clean water and medicine.
UNICEF said in December 2023 that people in South Gaza are accessing only 1.5 to 2 liters of water per day.
UNICEF says on average, people require three liters of water per day for survival and 15 liters if they are also cooking and washing.
It warned that there was significant risk of diseases and epidemics spreading due to the water and sanitation crisis, which has been compounded by a health system that has been completely crippled by Israel’s relentless attacks.
“Children and their families are having to use water from unsafe sources that are highly salinated or polluted. Without safe water, many more children will die from deprivation and disease in the coming days,” UNICEF said.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Wednesday Feb. 7 that he had ordered the country’s military begin moving into Rafah, in the south of Gaza at the border with Egypt, which he said was a stronghold of Hamas.
About 1.5 million Palestinians are currently seeking refuge in Rafah after Israel previously ordered them to evacuate there, calling it a “safe” zone.
Israel’s airstrikes and ground offensive have killed more than 27,500 Palestinians in Gaza most of them women and children, since Oct. 7.
