JERUSALEM: Israel said Tuesday it has connected a water desalination plant in southern Gaza to its electrical grid, in an easing of its siege of the Palestinian territory, but is not yet supplying power.
The Israeli military agency responsible for civilian operations in the Palestinian territories said it could take up to two weeks to start supplying electricity to the desalination plant in Khan Yunis, which is suffering from critical water shortages.
“A new power line from Israel has been directly connected to a water desalination plant managed by UNICEF in Khan Yunis,” said a statement from the Israeli army and the COGAT agency, referring to the United Nations children’s fund.
A source at Gaza’s Electricity Distribution Corporation said the beleaguered utility was “preparing for the possibility of them (Israel) operating the line.”
Col. Elad Goren of COGAT told a press briefing that Israel would provide electricity “once they will fix the lines from the Gazan side... in a week or two.”
He said the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority would pay for the electricity, as it did before the Israel-Hamas war started on October 7.
Israel has faced international criticism over the impact of its military assault against Hamas on Gaza’s civilian population.
Goren said infrastructure decisions were made at a political level, and that the return of the power line was based on the need to increase the desalination plant’s capacity.
UNICEF has welcomed an agreement with Israel to begin supplying the Khan Yunis plant again.
“This is an important milestone, and we are very much looking forward to seeing it implemented,” UNICEF spokesman in the Palestinian territories, Jonathan Crickx, told AFP.
Water has been scarce for Gaza’s 2.4 million inhabitants since the war erupted with the Hamas attacks on Israel. Sixty percent of the territory’s water distribution systems have been damaged, Crickx said.
After the Hamas attack, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced “a complete siege” on Gaza with “no electricity, no water, no gas.” Aid groups say Gaza is now gripped by a humanitarian crisis.
“Currently, the plant is only producing 5,000 cubic meters of water a day. With the new power line from Israel, the plant will ramp up production to 20,000 cubic meters of drinking water per day,” the Israeli statement said.
Israel says Gaza desalination plant connected to its electrical grid
https://arab.news/jvpkc
Israel says Gaza desalination plant connected to its electrical grid
- “A new power line from Israel has been directly connected to a water desalination plant managed by UNICEF in Khan Yunis,” said a statement from the Israeli army
- A source at Gaza’s Electricity Distribution Corporation said the beleaguered utility was “preparing for the possibility of them (Israel) operating the line“
Aid workers find little life in El-Fasher after RSF takeover
- First UN visit to the devastated Sudanese city finds traumatized civilians in ‘unsafe conditions’
PORT SUDAN: Traumatized civilians left in Sudan’s El-Fasher after its capture by paramilitary forces are living without water or sanitation in a city haunted by famine, UN aid coordinator Denise Brown said on Monday.
El-Fasher fell to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in October after more than 500 days of siege, and last Friday, a small UN humanitarian team was able to make its first short visit in almost two years.
Mass atrocities, including massacres, torture, and sexual violence, reportedly accompanied the capture of the city. Satellite pictures reviewed by AFP show what appear to be mass graves.
FASTFACT
From a humanitarian point of view, UN aid coordinator Denise Brown said, El-Fasher remains Sudan’s ‘epicenter of human suffering’ and the city — which once held more than a million people — is still facing a famine.
Brown described the city as a “crime scene,” but said human rights experts would carry out investigations while her office focuses on restoring aid to the survivors.
“We weren’t able to see any of the detainees, and we believe there are detainees,” she said.
From a humanitarian point of view, she said, El-Fasher remains Sudan’s “epicenter of human suffering” and the city — which once held more than a million people — is still facing a famine.
“El-Fasher is a ghost of its former self,” Brown said in an interview.
“We don’t have enough information yet to conclude how many people remain there, but we know large parts of the city are destroyed. The people who remain, their homes have been destroyed.”
“These people are living in very precarious situations,” warned Brown, a Canadian diplomat and the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Sudan.
“Some of them are in abandoned buildings. Some of them ... in very rudimentary conditions, plastic sheeting, no sanitation, no water. So these are very undignified, unsafe conditions for people.”
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a conflict between the regular army and its former allies, the RSF, which has triggered a humanitarian catastrophe.
Brown said the team “negotiated hard with the RSF” to obtain access and managed to look around, visit a hard-pressed hospital, and some abandoned UN premises — but only for a few hours.
Their movements were also limited by fears of unexploded ordnance and mines left behind from nearly two years of fighting.
“There was one small market operating, mostly with produce that comes from surrounding areas, so tomatoes, onions, potatoes,” she said.
“Very small quantities, very small bags, which tells you that people can’t afford to buy more.”
“There is a declared famine in El-Fasher. We’ve been blocked from going in. There’s nothing positive about what’s happened in El-Fasher.
“It was a mission to test whether we could get our people safely in and out, to have a look at what remains of the town, who remains there, what their situation is,” she said.
The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people, driven 11 million from their homes, and caused what the UN has declared “the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.”
