Union of Northern Gaza Strip Municipalities: 75% of Population is Homeless, IOF is Causing Further Food Insecurity

The Union of Northern Gaza Strip Municipalities revealed that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) destroyed 45,000 housing units in the northern governorate alone during their ongoing war on the Strip, leading to 75 percent of the governorate's residents losing their homes. Mayor of Beit Lahia Alaa Al Attar said in a press conference on Monday that the IOF destroyed 50,000 dunums of agricultural land, causing further food insecurity. The Israeli war destroyed more than one and a half million square meters of roads and streets in northern Gaza, 35 water wells and 5 main sewage pumps, he added. Al Attar pointed out that the occupation destroyed 77 waste and heavy machinery, the main desalination plant serving the Strip's north and Gaza City, and 57 electricity generators used to operate wells and pumps. About 60,000 tons of waste have piled up in the streets and in front of 60 shelters, while 85 percent of the transportation sector was destroyed, according to the mayor of Beit Lahia. He said that winter is approaching and most of the rainwater and sewage networks are destroyed which will cause the flooding of many residential areas especially Jabalia camp which floods every year due to the deterioration of the networks and their inability to absorb the quantities coming to the central Abu Rashid pump, as well as impacting the Beit Lahia area. Al Attar appealed to the international community to save what remains of human life in the Strip and provide the municipalities' needs, especially fuel needed to operate wells and sewage pumps. The IOF's intensive, comprehensive and unprecedented aggression on the Gaza Strip has continued since October 7 by launching dozens of airstrikes and shelling by land and sea which has left tens of thousands of martyrs, wounded and missing. It has caused massive destruction to the infrastructure and key facilities and resulted in an unprecedented humanitarian disaster in the Strip by restricting food, water, medicine and fuel supplies. Source: Qatar News Agency