Raw sewage plant in Gaza
Raw sewage plant in GazaIsrael news photo: Flash 90

Gaza City municipal teams worked for 24 hours to stem the flow of a sewage flooding homes in the city's eastern sector, Palestinian Authority (PA) based Ma'an News reported.

Faulty sewage lines burst and poured into homes on Friday. Perhaps symbolically, the deluge took place as the city prepared to welcome a flood of murderous terrorists being released by Israel.

Ma'an quoted a (presumably official) press release that laid the blame at Israel's door, but did not say who had issued it.

"Workers face difficulties upgrading the sewage network because materials and machines necessary for the work are blocked by Israel's siege on the Gaza Strip," the press release added, requesting assistance from "human rights organizations" to help end the closure.

The PA news agency explained that Israel tightened restrictions on movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza in 2007, "when Hamas took control of the enclave after winning democratic elections a year earlier." It failed, predictably, to remind its readers that Hamas's charter calls for the elimination of Israel and that it regularly attempts to murder Israeli civilians.

Construction materials can only enter Gaza via Israeli-controlled crossings for approved projects funded by international organizations and UN agencies, the report said. Restrictions on cement deliveries were relaxed last year in the aftermath of the Gaza flotilla confrontation. 

 

In early 2007, between six and nine people were reported dead in Gaza in sewage flooding. Israel offered assistance in the rescue efforts. A few weeks earlier, Israel charged that terrorists were digging up sewage pipes and turning them into rockets to fire into Israel.