The Washington Post - 29.08.2019

A8 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, AUGUST 29 , 2019

The World

LEBANON

Israeli drones come

under fire near border

Lebanese army gunners
opened fire at two of three Israeli
reconnaissance d rones
Wednesday after they entered
Lebanese airspace, a security
official and the s tate news agency
said, amid heightened tensions
between Lebanon and Israel.
The incident occurred in a
village a few m iles from the Israeli
border. T he security o fficial said
that the drones left L ebanese
airspace after being fired on and
that none of them was shot down.
In a statement, the Israeli
military acknowledged a
confrontation but said no damage
was reported.
The incident came just days
after an alleged Israeli drone
crashed in a Hezbollah stronghold
in southern Beirut, l anding on the
militant group’s B eirut media
office, w hile another exploded in
midair and crashed nearby.

On Monday, Israeli drones

attacked a Palestinian b ase i n

eastern Lebanon, exacerbating

tensions.

The Lebanese army and

government have described t he

drone incidents and Monday’s

attack as blatant acts of

aggression and violations of

sovereignty and have asserted

Lebanon’s r ight to self-defense.

Israeli f orces along t he border

remain on high alert, raising fears

of a repeat of the 2006 war.

— Associated Press

YEMEN

Government forces

push into key port city

Forces loyal to Yemen’s

internationally recognized

government pushed Wednesday

into the key port city of Aden after

wresting control of another

southern provincial c apital from

separatists backed by the United

Arab Emirates, officials and

residents s aid.

Government troops also retook

the international airport in Aden,

a main hub for the southern part

of the country, Yemen’s

information minister s aid.

The rapid advance by

government forces u nderscored

the seesaw nature of the f ighting.

Only weeks b efore, the separatists

had gained much t erritory in

southern Yemen, pushing

government forces o ut of strategic

cities and areas.

The fighting has added another

layer to the complex civil war in

the Arab world’s most

impoverished country, a war

pitting a Saudi-led coalition

backing the government against

Houthi rebels c ontrolling the

north. The UAE is a key member

of the coalition.

Earlier in the day, g overnment

forces pushed the UAE-backed

separatist militias out of the c ity of

Zinjibar, the c apital of Abyan

province, after clashes that left a t

least one dead. T he separatists

had seized Zinjibar earlier t his

month.

The retreating separatists fled

to nearby Aden province, which

they had taken from the forces of

Saudi-backed President Abed

Rabbo Mansour Hadi earlier this

month, officials said.

Government forces then

continued their push to retake the

city of Aden, which h as functioned

as the seat of Hadi’s government

since t he Houthis captured S anaa,

Yemen’s c apital, and much of the

north in 2014.

— Associated Press

INDIA

Court to study change

in Kashmir’s status

India’s top court on Wednesday

took up legal challenges to the

government’s d ecision to revoke

Indian-controlled Kashmir’s

special status and asked officials

to explain their stance to the

court.

The Supreme Court ordered the

federal government to file its

replies to 14 p etitions and inform

the court about media restrictions

imposed in Kashmir. I t said five

judges will start a regular hearing

on the matter in October.

India’s government, led by the

Hindu-nationalist B haratiya

Janata Party, i mposed a security

lockdown and communications

blackout in Muslim-majority

Kashmir to forestall violence over

the Aug. 5 decision to downgrade

the region’s a utonomy. T he

restrictions have been eased

slowly.

On Wednesday, t he court

allowed an Indian opposition

leader to visit Kashmir to meet a

colleague who he said was under

detention, but it told him not use

the visit for political purposes.

Indian authorities have turned

back opposition leaders at t he

airport and not allowed them to

visit Srinagar — the main city in

Indian-controlled Kashmir — and

other parts of the region since the

clampdown on Aug. 5.

The revoked special status has

touched off anger in the region,

where administrators and local

police now work under federal

control and where residents fear

their culture and demographic

identity are under threat.

The Himalayan region of

Kashmir is also claimed by

Pakistan, India’s archrival, and is

divided between them.

— Associated Press

Ukrainian court frees Russian

journalist: A U krainian c ourt

released a Russian journalist o n

parole a fter more t han a year i n

ja il, an apparent s ignal that a

much-anticipated prisoner

exchange with Russia i s getting

on track. Kirill Vyshinsky, t he

Kiev bureau c hief for the Russian

state RIA-Novosti news agency,

was a rrested on treason charges

in May 2018. The journalist, who

has U krainian c itizenship, has

rejected t he charges, saying h e

was o nly doing his j ob. A prisoner

swap with Russia has been

discussed s ince former c omedian

Volodymyr Z elensky w on the

Ukrainian presidency in A pril.

— F rom news services

DIGEST

BY JAMES MCAULEY

AND HAZEM BALOUSHA

gaza city — The sea was once
Gaza’s only escape, the one place
in this tiny enclave where resi-
dents could depart from their
entrapped lives, if only for an
hour.
But now a ceaseless conflict
that seems to impinge on nearly
every aspect of life here has
claimed the Mediterranean, too.
Because of skyrocketing levels of
water pollution, attributable to
political and economic turmoil,
the 25-mile coastline is now an-
other barrier in a place where
barriers are all too common.
People still come to watch the
waves. They still stop to savor the
salty breeze. But these days, many
stop short of swimming. Even in
the heat of summer, to swim is
now to tempt fate.
“This is the only place to ex-
hale, in Gaza,” said Rawya Thal-
enty, 3 7, a mother of six, sitting on
the beach with a friend on a
recent evening and gesturing at
the water. “There are no options
here in Gaza. This is truly the only
place we can go.”
More than a decade into a strict
land, sea and air blockade im-
posed by Israel and Egypt to exert
pressure on Hamas, the Islamist
militant group that has con-
trolled Gaza since 2007, the en-
clave is in the midst of a water
crisis born of the region’s com-
bustible politics.
The three wars Hamas has
waged with Israel since 2009
have devastated the Gaza Strip’s
already weak sanitation system.
On top of that, Gaza’s sewage
treatment plants sit idle many
hours a day without the electrici-
ty to power them. That’s because
the Palestinian Authority, based
in the West Bank, has sought to
undermine popular support for
its rival Hamas by halting pay-
ments to Israel for the fuel used to
generate electricity in Gaza.
Israel has played power poli-
tics as well. Earlier this week,
following an uptick in rockets
fired into Israel from Gaza over
the weekend, Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the
limited amount of diesel fuel Isra-
el ships for electricity generation
to be cut in half.
Some studies have estimated
that as a result of inadequate
treatment, up to 108,000 cubic
meters of untreated sewage is
now discarded directly into the
sea every day, and reserves of
potable water have significantly
diminished. A public health
emergency now looms for the
nearly 2 million Palestinians who
live in the Gaza Strip, many of
whom are refugees and the de-
scendants of refugees from the
1948 war that established Israel’s
independence.
According to the World Health
Organization, waterborne diseas-
es constitute about one-fourth of
all illnesses in the Gaza Strip. A
2018 study by the Rand Corp. was
likewise clear in its conclusion,
predicting an imminent spike in
bacterial, parasitic and viral in-
fections such as cholera, giardia
and viral meningitis, respectively.
“We’re just sitting,” said Jabar
Shamalakh, 21, sprawled on a
plastic chair at the beach on a
recent afternoon, at the center of
a circle of his friends. He said it
had been five years since he had
been in the water. For his friend
Loay Hamouda, 23, it was three
years. For Ahmad Arafat, 21, a
year and a half.
“It’s deeply frustrating,” Arafat
said. “I miss the sea. I used to surf
sometimes. But now I can’t.” Sha-
malakh paused for a moment
when asked what he missed most
about feeling the water on his
skin.

“Joy,” he said. “When it’s clear,

we feel the joy.”

The sheer amount of sewage

washing into the sea has had

consequences for the wider re-

gion — including for Israel, where

the nearby coastal city of Ashkel-

on has experienced the effects of

Gaza’s sanitation breakdown. A

study published in March by

EcoPeace Middle East demon-

strated that sewage from Gaza

had washed up on nearby beach-

es, as well as interfered with the

operations of Ashkelon’s desali-

nation plant.

Earlier this year, Israel pledged

to build both a fourth water pipe-

line into Gaza as well as a new

sewage pipeline to treat some of

Gaza’s waste on the Israeli side of

the border. The Persian Gulf

country of Qatar, meanwhile, has

tried to address the electricity

shortage in Gaza but has not

supplied enough money to pay for

the estimated 400 to 600 mega-

watts the enclave needs every day.

Engineers in Gaza argue that

Israel’s blockade has made ad-

equate sewage treatment almost

impossible.

Housam Badawi, an electro-

chemical engineer, is overseeing

the construction of a new central

Gaza waste-management plant, a

project that was initially slated

for completion in 2005.

The reason for the delay,

Badawi said, is that Israeli au-

thorities have classified certain

items and materials required for

completion as “dual use,” mean-

ing they could also be used to

build weapons.

The new facility is funded by

KfW, a German development

bank, which will continue to pay a

fraction of operating costs upon

completion. Thomas Gaier, a Ger-

man project manager on the site,

said the work is now being ham-

strung because of a dispute over

measuring instruments, which he

said Israeli authorities have held

up for more than three months.

COGAT, the organization with-

in the Israeli Defense Ministry

that coordinates Israel’s a ctivities

in Palestinian territories, con-

firmed in a statement that the

measuring devices were classified

as “advanced dual use technologi-

cal equipment.” But COGAT also

said that KfW had been granted a

permit for this equipment but

had failed to procure the devices

within the required 30-day

window after the permit was is-

sued.

The delays on the new facility,

slated to process 60,000 cubic

meters of sewage, have contribut-

ed to the unabated flow of sewage

into the sea, with three other

plants able to treat only about

85,000 cubic meters of the daily

waste.

Most G azans seem aware of the

pollution flowing into the Medi-

terranean, but many cannot bring

themselves to abandon the beach.

“The beach is the only source of

life for Gazans — especially when

the electricity is out in their

homes,” said Abulraheem Abu

Qumbuz, director of the Gaza

municipality’s water sanitation

department. “We consider it as a

lifeline in the summer particular-

ly.”

In some areas, the putrid

stench is inescapable. And if the

crowds still come in the heat of

summer, they mostly just sit and

watch. Young children do still

frolic in the water, but only be-

cause their parents say they have

neither the resolve nor the heart

to stop them, regardless of sanita-

tion worries.

“I’m concerned about it, but I

can’t prevent the kids, because

they see others swimming and

they just start crying,” said Alaa

Louh, 30, who was sitting on the

sand, watching her two young

sons and daughter splash in the

waves.

In an enclave where the aver-

age monthly salary is roughly

$420 a month and 63 percent of

residents live below the global

poverty line of $2 per day, the

beach is free.

Middle-class and well-to-do

Gazans tend to do their swim-

ming at private pools, which they

can access with a day pass at one

of the strip’s few hotels. Or they

may opt for more privacy and rent

coveted chalets that come with

pools, compounds that can cost

between $100 and $200 per day.

For most, that is out of the ques-

tion.

“If I could afford to go to a

swimming pool — or a chalet — I

wouldn’t hesitate. But I can’t,”

said Mohammad To ta, 19, who

was swimming for the first time

this year in what he said was a

celebration for moving on to his

university studies.

For him, the liberating sensa-

tion of being in the water was

worth any price. “Playing in the

water and feeling the waves re-

leases the stress and lets you

forget your problems,” Tota said.

“It reminds me of my childhood

and better times.”

[email protected]

In Gaza, conflict taints a summertime respite

Years of strife with Israel have left the Palestinian territory facing a water crisis, with untreated waste soiling its beloved beaches

PHOTOS BY LOAY AYYOUB FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

A man rides a horse along the Mediterranean shore in the Gaza Strip, where many have stopped swimming in the sea because of pollution from untreated sewage.

A cascade of wastewater pours into the Mediterranean Sea from Gaza. Conflict and an Israeli

blockade that has lasted more than a decade have left the territory’s sanitation system crippled.