Dire water shortages compound hunger, displacement in Gaza

Atop air strikes, displacement and hunger, an unprecedented water crisis is unfolding across Gaza, heaping further misery on the Palestinian territory's residents.

- 

Gaza was already suffering a water crisis before nearly 22 months of war between Israel and Hamas damaged more than 80 per cent of the territory's water infrastructure.

"Sometimes, I feel like my body is drying from the inside, thirst is stealing all my energy and that of my children," Um Nidal Abu Nahl, a mother of four living in Gaza City, told AFP.

Water trucks sometimes reach residents and NGOs install taps in camps for a lucky few, but it is far from sufficient.

Israel connected some water mains in north Gaza to the Israeli water company Mekorot, after cutting off supplies early in the war, but residents told AFP water still wasn't flowing.

Local authorities said this was due to war damage to Gaza’s water distribution network, with many mains pipes destroyed.

Gaza City spokesman Assem Al-Nabih told AFP that the municipality's part of the network supplied by Mekorot had not functioned in nearly two weeks.

Wells that supplied some needs before the war have also been damaged, with some contaminated by sewage which goes untreated because of the conflict.