A ban on materials required for their maintenance,
including cement, steel and pipes, left them in a state of disrepair.
Israeli bombs hit the already fragile sewage and water
treatment systems, causing drinking water and raw sewage to mix across
some of the most populated areas of Gaza.
Tank shells hit the strip's largest wastewater plant in the Sheikh Aljeen area
of Gaza City, sending sewage cascading directly into neighbourhoods, farms
and into the sea.
Countless fruit groves across the Gaza Strip are now gone, entire farms bulldozed. The remains of thousands of destroyed homes emit toxic asbestos, while dilapidated infrastructure dumps raw sewage into the Mediterranean Sea. An already deepening environmental crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip has been further compounded by the recent war.