90% of Gazans live below poverty line, 95% of water undrinkable

Head of the Popular Committee against the Siege Jamal Al-Khodari has described living conditions in the Gaza Strip as “disastrous” after the latest Israeli war.

In a briefed press release, Al-Khodari said that more than 90 per cent of Palestinians in Gaza live under the poverty line because of the sharp increase of unemployment rates.

“Displaced Gazans, who live in shelters, experience disastrous conditions,” Al-Khodari said, “as they lost the basic needs of life after the collapse of almost all facilities of major services such as electricity, water and sanitation.”

He noted that the humanitarian crises had increased after the latest Israeli war on the coastal enclave. “Individual income became below $2 per day,” he said.

Life in Gaza after the Israeli assault:

90% live under the poverty line
95% of water is undrinkable
40 million litres of untreated sewage water is poured into the sea every day
Al-Khodari said that around 95 per cent of Gaza’s water is undrinkable and the sea water is polluted because 40 million litres of untreated sewage water is pouring into it every day. “This has catastrophic effects on the public health and the fishing industry as well,” he said.

Regarding the infrastructure, Al-Khodari stressed, it was already battered before the latest Israeli war because of the Israeli siege, and the air strikes during the war aggravated the problems.

“In general, all aspects of life were severely affected, including the agriculture sector,” the head of the anti-siege committee said. “Agricultural soil was polluted by the poisonous materials of the Israeli rockets that hit the farms,” he added.

Al-Khodari called for all world bodies and Arab organisations to urgently offer swift solutions in order to save the lives of Gaza’s residents.