“The IDF does not aim to inflict damage to civilian infrastructure and strikes are conducted exclusively on the grounds of military necessity and in strict accordance with international law,” a spokesperson said.
“The IDF most certainly does not use water, or any humanitarian resources, as a weapon of war.”
It argued Hamas regularly hides militants and stockpiles in places such as water plants and wells.
“The IDF is locating and destroying these terror infrastructures, which have been discovered, among other places, within and near the water facilities in question,” the spokesperson said.
While not denying the damage and destruction to facilities across Gaza has been extensive, the IDF insisted it was working to allow repairs to be undertaken
This is just evil incarnate.
One thing I don’t understand is, how can polio resurface after 24 years?
I am tempted to think that it was intentionally released, but perhaps someone has a less evil explanation?
There are two types of polio vaccine: inactivated polio virus (given by a shot) and oral polio virus (OPV). OPV is a lot easier to give in rural and impoverished areas, or areas where it may be difficult for healthcare workers to get access. However, because it’s given orally and because it contains a very weak but live form of polio virus, there’s the chance that the recipient (while immune themselves) may continue to replicate and carry the virus in their intestinal tract. They may then pass the virus in their feces.
In an area with a functioning sewage system, this is generally a negligible risk. In an area where everyone is vaccinated and has a functioning immune system, this is generally a negligible risk. In an area where possibly not everyone is vaccinated, or where people’s bodies are starting to break down due to starvation, and where the sewage system has been deliberately blown up, this is almost inevitable.
This is also intentional. In the concentration camps, a significant portion of the deaths were due to diseases that ripped through the camps, where the inmates were severely and deliberately malnourished, chronically overworked, had minimal protection from the elements, and were provided little hygiene or healthcare. The only difference with Gaza is that it’s a bigger camp, and instead of being overworked, the inmates are repeatedly forced to move from one area to another to another.
The only difference with Gaza is that it’s a bigger camp, and instead of being overworked, the inmates are repeatedly forced to move from one area to another to another.
The main difference is that the elected government of Gaza can stop what is happening at any time by releasing the hostages and surrendering.
If you can stop what is happening by releasing the hostages and surrendering, then what is happening is not genocide, it is a military operation to rescue hostages and defeat those responsible for kidnapping them.
Israel has repeatedly refused any permanent ceasefire. Instead they executed the principal negotiator on foreign soil. While they have perpetually delayed any genuine ceasefire, they have ruthlessly killed tens of thousands of children, hundreds of journalists, and even their own hostages. They have repeatedly displayed Palestinians in Gaza, bombed schools, Refugee camps, places of worship, historical sites. They have starved the entirely of Gaza more than even before Oct 7th, in which the majority of Gazans were food insecure due to the blockade.
This has been nearly an entire year of genocide. Make no mistake. Israel is the obstacle to a ceasefire, not Hamas. Israel is the one that refuses to accept the UN Security Council 3-stage permanent ceasefire proposal (Unlike Hamas), which includes the release of the hostages. Israel has continually refused any permanent Ceasefire proposal, and repeatedly added new conditions to obstruct any deal. Israel clearly doesn’t give a shit about the hostages. They also actively killed Israeli soldiers and civilians as part of the Hannibal directive to prevent as many hostages as possible. They have also killed the most Israeli hostages, both from bombing and directly shooting them (while they were waiving white flags).
History of peace process - The Intercept
“A Textbook Case of Genocide”: Israeli Holocaust Scholar Raz Segal Decries Israel’s Assault on Gaza
It could spread from other places where it exists. Syria would be the most likely source given its geographic proximity.
Alternatively, there are vaccines that use a semi-disabled live virus. While normally harmless, in war with lots of opportunities for transmission and many many people with weakened immune systems, it is possible for it to mutate back into the dangerous form of the virus. This was known to happen in the US in the last few years.
Well ABC if you had been reporting accurately and not shilling for Israel and silencing those who spoke out, maybe we could’ve helped avoid this?
The people who sell the lifestraws are helping to provide them to Gaza, hopefully they can get them in.
The water systems were ripped out to make Rockets.
That isn’t Israel’s fault.
The destruction and control of water infrastructure is deliberate
In 1967, Israel seized control of all water resources in the newly occupied territories. To this day, it retains exclusive control over all the water resources that lie between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, with the exception of a short section of the coastal aquifer that runs under the Gaza Strip. Israel uses the water as it sees fit, ignoring the needs of Palestinians in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip to such an extent that both areas suffer from a severe water shortage. In each of them, residents are not supplied enough water; in Gaza, even the water that is supplied is substandard and unfit for drinking
Israel has been holding the Gaza Strip under blockade for more than a decade, since June 2007. It does not allow any materials in that it considers “dual purpose”, i.e., that can be used for either civilian or military purposes. This includes construction materials, such as cement and iron, and other raw materials. All these are needed to repair Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure, which were heavily damaged by Israeli bombings, especially in Operation Cast Lead (which began in late 2008) and Operation Protective Edge (the summer of 2014).
The coastal aquifer, on which residents of Gaza depend for water, has been polluted by over-pumping and wastewater contamination, making 97% of the water pumped from it and supplied to homes unsafe to drink. As there are no other water sources available, the over-pumping continues and the aquifer is on the brink of collapse. Residents have no choice but to cut back on drinking and buy desalinated water from private vendors. Yet an estimated 68% of this water is also polluted, increasing the risk of diseases spreading among the population.
