Over 90% of water in Gaza Strip unfit for drinking

9 February 2014

Elderly man fills water container at public multi-faucet sink of Khan Yunis Water Authority’s wastewater treatment plant. Photo by Muhammad Sabah, B’Tselem, 4 February 2014

Gaza's primary water source is the coastal aquifer, which is also used by Israel and Egypt. It has been continuously over-pumped for decades, even prior to Israel's occupation in 1967. At present, the Palestinian Water Authority pumps some 180 million cubic meters (mcm) a year from the aquifer in Gaza, although its replenishment rate is only 50-60 mcm a year. Over the years, this has significantly lowered the groundwater level, leading to contamination of the aquifer’s water by seawater seeping in and saline groundwater rising from deeper in the reservoir. Israel currently sells Gaza 4.2 mcm of water a year and has agreed to sell another 5 mcm of desalinated water annually, but the infrastructure work for conveying the water have yet to be completed.

Another longstanding problem in the Gaza Strip is the lack of proper wastewater treatment. Many residents are not even connected to a sewage system, and domestic waste flows into cesspits, from where it seeps into the groundwater and contaminates it. The problem has grown worse in recent years, primarily due to electricity shortages. In addition, Israel damaged wastewater-treatment facilities during Operation Cast Lead, resulting in far greater quantities of sewage going untreated. Although the facility has since been restored and new infrastructure laid in towns previously not connected to a sewage system, Gaza's wastewater-treatment facilities are far from able to meet the required amounts and standards.

Although infrastructure has since been rebuilt or added in towns previously left untreated, Gaza's wastewater-treatment facilities are far from meeting the necessary standards. Various projects to improve infrastructure are slow to progress, due both to Israel's restrictions on importing construction materials and equipment into Gaza as well as to lengthy bureaucratic processes in the international organizations funding the projects.

The Palestinian Water Authority in Gaza has found a rise in nitrate levels in the water due to contamination, mostly caused by pesticide use in agriculture and sewage seeping into the aquifer. Every day, only some 25 percent of Gaza's wastewater – about 30,000 cubic meters – is treated and recycled for agricultural use. Some 90,000 cubic meters of untreated or partially treated wastewater flows daily into the Mediterranean, resulting in contamination, health hazards and damage to the fishing industry. Due to the increased nitrate levels, the aquifer is now high in nitrogen and chloride, rendering 90 to 95 percent of its water unfit for drinking and problematic for agricultural use. The PA’s Water Authority also found that only 14 wells (some 6.5% of all wells in Gaza) provide water that meets World Health Organization standards.

Ninety-seven percent of Gazans are connected to the public water-supply system, yet this does not ensure a steady supply of water, as the Gaza Strip suffers from shortages of water, shortages in the electricity needed to pipe water through the system, as well as from severe problems with infrastructure. Consequently, residents suffer deliberate water outages, receiving running water for only six to eight hours at a time: 25% of households on a daily basis, 40% every other day, 20% once every three days, and the remaining 15% (in Gaza City, Rafah and Jabaliya) only one day out of four.

The erratic supply of water forces residents to collect water in containers. These containers are placed on rooftops, yet power outages often mean that the pumps that are to channel the water into the containers are out of commission, forcing residents to collect water in other container, on ground level.

Wafa al-Faran, 42, a married mother of eight, lives in a-Shuja'iya neighborhood, Gaza City. She related the following testimony to B'Tselem:

The power outages really interfere with the water supply to our houses. When there's no electricity, there's very little water in the taps. We had to buy a pump so that the water would reach the containers on our roof. We have four containers of 4,000 liters altogether. When we get running water, we turn the pump on and fill up the containers. But sometimes, there's no electricity when there’s water. When that happened, we used to operate the pump with a generator, so that we wouldn't run out of water. But the generator uses a lot of fuel, which is very expensive. Now there's no fuel from Egypt and the fuel from Israel is very expensive, so we don't use the generator at all. Even at night, when we don't have power, we make do with candles and flashlights. A few months ago, my husband bought a new water container, which we put at the entrance to the house, so that we can fill it up when there's no power. We get water out of the container in buckets, because it's not connected to our plumbing.
We don't drink the water that from the pipes and don't use it for making coffee or tea or for cooking. We buy fresh water from water vendors. Sometimes, I use the fresh water to wash my daughters’ hair, and in the morning we use this water to wash our faces, because the water from the taps burns our eyes.

Average water consumption in the Gaza Strip is 70-90 liters per person, per day, while the minimum recommended by the World Health Organization is 100 liters per person, per day. Although most residents in Gaza are connected to the public water system, the water’s poor quality means they must buy water treated in governmental or private factories, or factories operated by charities.

Khan Yunis Water Authority wastewater treatment facility. Photo by Muhammad Sabah, B’Tselem, 4 February 2014

Ibtesam Kheir a-Din, 48, a married mother of six lives in a-Sultan neighborhood, Rafah. She related the following testimony to B'Tselem:

The water we get is salty and unfit for drinking. Sometimes it even smells bad. We use it only to clean the house and do dishes and laundry, but nothing ever feels really clean. The clothes sometimes smell bad and get stained. The water also ruins the washing machine. We've fixed the machine several times, which cost us 50 to 70 shekels [approx. 14 USD – 20USD] every time, and the technician said the problems were caused by the too many salts in the water. We don't drink the water or use it for cooking. For cooking and drinking, we buy water every day from vendors who go around the neighborhood or from shops that sell water containers. We buy 50 liters of fresh water a day, at two shekels [approx. 0.6 USD] a liter. Lately, because power outages have gone on for as long as twelve hours at time and because we don't have enough money to pay for fuel to run the generator to fill the containers, we've started buying water for dishwashing and laundry, too.

On 1 November 2013, Gaza's power plant was shut down due to a fuel shortage, and the sewage pumping stations had to be run on generators. On 13 November, one of the stations in a-Zaytun neighborhood, Gaza City, stopped operating due to a generator malfunction, causing some 35,000 mcm of raw sewage to flood the neighborhood and leak into homes.

Fat’hi Saqer, a 67-year-old resident of the neighborhood, told B'Tselem:

I live with my wife and seven children, who are five to seventeen years old, on the ground floor of a building, about twenty meters away from the sewage pumping station. On Wednesday, 13 November 2013, at around 1 o’clock, we'd just finished eating lunch after the boys came back from school, when suddenly sewage started leaking into our house. We started taking off the floor the mattresses and rugs and clothes that got wet. Then we tried to plug up the drain holes in the house with bits of cloth so that the sewage wouldn't rise, but that didn't help. Sewage came up through the holes and filled the house. We stopped up the holes again and started hauling out the dirty water. We put bags of sand up against the front door so that the sewage wouldn't get in from there. We got completely wet: our hands, feet, our clothing. Everything stank. It took us hours to get all the water out and the floor dry. Then we washed only our hands and feet, because we didn't want to use a lot of water, in case it would cause another flooding.

As far back as 2009, UNEP recommended that underground pumping from the coastal aquifer in the Gaza Strip cease, in order to prevent collapse of the Gaza water economy. Yet over-pumping continues, in part due to the lack of alternative water sources in Gaza. At present, no plan for a long-term solution to the Gaza water crisis is being implemented. The Palestinian Water Authority and UNEP have cautioned that the coastal aquifer has passed the point of no return in terms of rehabilitation options, so that as of 2016 it will no longer be possible to pump water from the aquifer.

To resolve the grave water crisis in the Gaza Strip, UNEP recommended that all parties to the coastal aquifer – Israel, the Palestinian Authority, the Hamas government and Egypt – act in conjunction to halt the swift rapid deterioration of the groundwater system that serves Gaza and also to work on finding other sources of potable drinking water for its residents. At the same time, and without delay, Israel must allow materials and equipment to be brought into Gaza for the purpose of restoring and developing Gaza's water and wastewater treatment systems.

• All testimonies gathered by Muhammad Sabah, B’Tselem’s field researcher in the Gaza Strip.

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Water Crisis

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. The right to water and sanitation is a fundamental human right enshrined in international conventions. As Israel is a signatory to these conventions, it is obliged to uphold this right in all the territories it controls. The West Bank Under the 1995 Interim Agreement (Oslo II), Israel retained control of all water resources in the Occupied Territories . The agreement, still in effect although originally designed as a five-year arrangement, stipulates that 80% of the water in the West Bank that is pumped from the mountain aquifer – a joint Israeli- Palestinian resource – be allocated for Israeli use, and the remaining 20% for Palestinian use. It also provides Israelis with an unlimited water supply, while restricting Palestinian supply to a predetermined amount of some 118 million cubic meters from existing drillings, along with 70 to 80 million cubic meters from new drillings. It further stipulates that Israel sell the Palestinians another 31 million cubic meters a year. In reality, Palestinians extract less water than specified in the agreement. This is the result of various technical difficulties, as well as the unexpected failure of new drillings in the eastern basin of the mountain aquifer – the area where Palestinian drilling was granted – and obstacles introduced by Israel, such as lengthy delays and not processing approval for projects. The Palestinian population in the West Bank, which has nearly doubled since 1995, currently receives only 75% of the agreed amount of water, while Israelis enjoy an unlimited supply. This forces the Palestinian Authority (PA) to purchase much more water from Mekorot (Israel’s national water company) than originally agreed. According to Israeli Water Authority figures, in 2019, the PA purchased an additional 93 million cubic meters from Mekorot – 79.6 for the West Bank and the rest for the Gaza Strip. Palestinian communities in the West Bank receive the purchased water from local reservoirs that are connected to Mekorot’s area reservoirs, which lie within settlements. As both the pipelines that run between Palestinian communities in the West Bank and the water grids within Palestinian cities and villages are in poor shape, about one-third of all water bought by the PA is lost to leakage. Israel refuses to approve PA proposals for projects to repair the pipes, which necessarily run through Area C. According to Palestinian Water Authority figures, Palestinians in the West Bank consumed a total of 195.8 million cubic meters of water in 2018. Due to all these factors, Palestinians in the West Bank suffer a constant shortage of water that is largely manmade. According to Palestinian Water Authority figures for the West Bank, in 2018, average water consumption for domestic, commercial and industrial uses (excluding agriculture and accounting for leakage) was 90.5 liters per capita a day. The highest rate of consumption was recorded in Jericho District, with 268.7 liters per capita a day, while the lowest rate was recorded in Jenin District, with 50.2 liters per capita a day. This falls short of the minimum recommended by the World Health Organization, which is 100 liters of water per capita a day, for personal and domestic use only. As the figures for Palestinians include commercial uses, private consumption per capita is even lower. The water shortage in the West Bank is most acute in summertime. This is partly because Mekorot cuts back on the quantities it supplies to some Palestinian communities in order to meet the higher seasonal demand in certain settlements, and also because wells in some parts of the West Bank produce less water in summer. As the reduced volume of water lowers the pressure in pipes, local Palestinian water authorities have to rotate the supply between communities and neighborhoods to ensure that all the consumers receive water. As a result, many Palestinians suffer from lengthy water outages, usually lasting several days to a week. The low pressure also means that sometimes, the water does not reach remote or elevated locations. These overall figures regarding average consumption in the West Bank do not reflect the full extent of the crisis, as the supply varies widely between communities and areas. Cities and developed communities enjoy the best services, with a network that supplies homes with running water for at least some hours every day. They also have paved roads that make it easier to transport water from alternative sources, such as springs and Palestinian drills, when Israel cuts back on the supply. Next are villages that have a water grid but are not easily accessible, making transportation of water from alternative sources when needed costly and difficult. Worst off are dozens of communities that Israel prevents from hooking up to a water grid, leaving them no choice but to buy water privately from tankers all year round, at considerable cost. The cost often rises when the water must be transported across rough terrain, because Israel does not allow the communities to pave proper access roads. A 2013 survey conducted by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) identified 180 such communities, which are home to some 30,000 people. Their land is located entirely or in part in Area C. In these communities, Israel’s stringent restrictions on developing water infrastructure have been exacerbated by settlers and Israeli authorities taking over natural water sources the residents relied on for years, destroying cisterns and spring-fed pools and blocking access to them. All these actions are part of an ongoing effort by Israeli authorities to drive these residents from their homes. Average water consumption in these communities is a mere 20 liters per capita a day. Residents buy water at several times the price of the public service, yet it is often not safe to drink due to poor sanitary conditions in the tankers that transport it. This reality demonstrates how Israel sees water – and other natural resources in the West Bank – as its exclusive property, to be doubly exploited: both for Israeli needs – especially those of settlements – and as way to dispossess and control Palestinians. The Gaza Strip 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 estimated damage amounts to some 34 million dollars. As of the end of 2015, more than 100,000 Palestinians in Gaza were still cut off from the public water network. 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. According to Palestinian Water Authority figures for the Gaza Strip, 95.1 million cubic meters were supplied for domestic use in 2018, and the total water consumption that year was 193.7 million cubic meters. About 35.6 million cubic meters are lost on the way to homes due to Gaza’s outdated and dilapidated infrastructure. Consequently, overall domestic consumption was 83.1 million cubic meters in 2018 – short of the minimum 100-liter average recommended by the WHO. By comparison, according to Mekorot, the Israeli population consumes an average of 230 liters per capita a day – an increase of 95% over the last decade. According to the Israel Water Authority, total water consumption in Israel was 2,237 million cubic meters in 2019. This is more than five times the amount of water consumed in the West Bank and Gaza together, although Israel has less than double the population size of the two areas combined.

11 November 2017

Agriculture

Foul Play

The report warns about the danger inherent in neglecting wastewater treatment in the West Bank. The report criticizes both Israel and the Palestinian Authority for their failures, which have harmed the health and future water supply of all residents of Israel and the West Bank.

28 June 2009

מזח דייגים בעיר עזה. צילום: מוחמד סבאח, בצלם

The Gaza Strip

Plunged into despair: How Israel's policy affects Gazan families that depend on fishing for a living

On 12 August 2020, Israel reduced southern Gaza’s fishing range from 15 to eight nautical miles, officially because explosive-laden balloons had been launched from Gaza into Israel. On 16 August 2020, Israel banned access to the Gaza sea, and on 2 September 2020, reopened the fishing zone to 15 nautical miles. This further restriction of the permitted range joins various forms of collective punishment imposed on Palestinian fishermen since Israel began its blockade of the Gaza Strip in 2007. Israel has arrested fishermen and seized their boats, banned the import of raw materials used for repairs, and fired at boats that it claimed sailed beyond the permitted range. To date, Israeli gunfire has killed seven fishermen and wounded hundreds. The restrictions have led to the near-collapse of the Gazan fishing industry: there are currently less than 4,000 fishermen, as opposed to 10,000 or so 20 years ago. Those remaining suffer from perilous working conditions imposed by Israel and live with their families in abject poverty. The following testimonies were given to B'Tselem field researcher Olfat al-Kurd by wives and mothers of Gazan fishermen and fishmongers. Describing their painful reality and uncertain future, the women talked of constantly fearing for their loved ones and of the financial hardship created by Israel's restriction of their livelihoods – which is set to worsen due to the pandemic. In a testimony she gave on 5 August 2020, Intesar a-Sa'idi (52), a mother of six from a-Shati’ Refugee Camp in Gaza City, described the financial hardship and personal tragedy that befell her family: When my husband Marwan and I got married in 1984, he was already a fisherman. It's his only profession. My sons and their uncles are also fishermen. At first, our finances were fine and my husband's job didn't seem too risky. At that time, the Israeli military didn't shoot or arrest fishermen or confiscate their equipment. Fishermen were allowed to go quite far out and there were lots of fish. My husband earned well, 2,000 to 3,000 shekels (~600-890 USD) a week, so I had no reason to worry. He worked on his own rowboat and when our boys, Khader and a-Sayed, were young, he would take them out to sea and teach them the trade. I was calm and didn't really fear for their lives. Things changed when the blockade started. The restricted fishing range made things much worse for us. Now, fishermen have to risk their lives to put food on the table. I'm terrified my husband and children will be shot or arrested or have their equipment confiscated. Four times, soldiers arrested them and released them the same day but took away their gear. Every time I heard there'd been a shooting at sea, I was in a panic until I found out my boys were okay. To make sure, I'd go to the port and wait until I saw them get off the boat safe and sound, and only then I'd go home. In 2012 my husband stopped fishing because of back problems, and since then my two sons have been the family’s only providers. Both are married with children and we all live in the same house. Our financial difficulty forced me to sell my gold jewelry and borrow from relatives. To this day, we owe money and can't pay it back. In 2017, the military arrested Khader. We didn't hear from him and only found out he was under arrest 10 days later. They tried him and sentenced him to 16 months in prison. They said he’d gone beyond the fishing range several times and that they'd finally caught him. I suffered a lot while Khader was in prison. At first, I cried day and night. I couldn't sleep and knew no joy. On visiting days, I’d cry beforehand, during the visit and afterwards. It was a very rough time. When they arrested Khader, they confiscated his rowboats and gave them back useless – just the wood, without the gear. After Khader was released and went back to work, a disaster happened. About a year and a half ago, on 20 February 2019, he was out fishing. That night, we heard that the military had chased some rowboats and taken one to the port of Ashdod. My son a-Sayed told me that Khader had been arrested, but I had a feeling that he’d been hurt. I was in the dark for four days. The other fishermen were released, but not Khader. Finally, I learned that he'd been hit in the right eye by a rubber bullet and lost his sight in both eyes, and was hospitalized in Israel. When they brought him to a-Shifaa Hospital in Gaza, I saw him for the first time and broke down crying. Since then my life's been a tragedy. My heart is full of sorrow for Khader, who is a prisoner in his own home. He's unemployed and can't support his family. His financial situation is truly tragic. He doesn't receive any benefits or support, other than small donations from generous people. His medication costs about 150 (~45 USD) shekels a month. Khader's in a bad emotional state. He doesn't like to go out in his condition, stays at home all day and doesn't sleep at night. He's very tense. It would have been better if the bullet had hit another part of his body. It's very hard to lose your eyesight, especially for a guy who's only 32. Of everyone in the family, I'm the one most affected by Khader's situation. I'm the one who cares for his needs and provides for his children. All fishing gave him was trouble and heartache. The riches of the sea stayed in the sea, and I was left with pain over my son who lost his eyesight at sea. Today, my son a-Sayed (33) works as a hired fisherman and sometimes rents a boat. We make 500 shekels (~150 USD) a month at most – not enough for such a big family. I get a welfare benefit of 1,800 shekels (~530 USD) every three or four months, and even that's not enough to repay our debts. The problem is that the economy in Gaza is in such bad shape that there are no other lines of work available. When my grandchildren play, they imitate their fathers and build small rowboats and net-making machines. They say, “We’re going out to work!” or "Watch out for gunfire.” I look at them and say, “Don’t take up this trade. I don’t want to lose you! I’m more scared for you than I am for your fathers.” I hope the situation gets better and we see brighter days. I hope God will give Khader his eyesight back and that his mental state will improve. Nura Nu’man (22), a mother of two from a-Shati’ Refugee Camp in Gaza City, described fearing for her husband Muamen (31), a fisherman, and the family’s financial troubles: When Muamen goes to work, I worry that he won't come back. I relax only once he's home. In early 2018, Muamen went fishing and didn’t come back for a long time. I feared for his safety when I learned from other fishermen in the family that the military had arrested him. I was terrified and cried. The military was also holding his brother at the time. I was scared Muamen wouldn't come home. My son Muhammad was only seven months old. For three weeks we didn't know where they were holding Muamen, and I barely slept or ate. Finally, he was released. When he walked in, I couldn't believe my eyes. I started laughing and crying at the same time. I hugged him and was so happy. After the arrest, he went back to work despite the risk. It's his only profession. Between 2013 and 2017, the military confiscated three family boats. So far they've only given one back. Last year, Muamen's brothers bought a boat and he started working with them – five brothers in one boat. Every weekend he gets 150 shekels (~45 USD), but it isn't enough for the four of us, especially since the kids are young and need diapers and milk every day. My life revolves around loans and debts to family and friends. My mother-in-law gets 750 shekels (~220 USD) from the Welfare Ministry every three or four months and divides it among her sons. My husband uses every bit to pay off our debts. Sometimes, he takes loans to buy nets and paddles, and when he sells fish he uses the money to pay off the debt. When I hear soldiers opened fire at fishermen, I immediately call my brothers-in-law to check on Muamen and can't breathe easy until he's home. He's also scared of being arrested or killed. That makes me even more nervous. I ask him not to talk like that and to come back safe and sound, God willing. Sometimes I tell Muamen that I hope he takes up a different line of work, because of the danger he faces at sea and from the Israeli military. I ask him to look for another job and leave the sea. But he says the situation in Gaza is bad and that there's no work besides fishing. He asks me to be patient and hope for better days. I pray to God to keep the Israeli military away from my husband and from the other fishermen. I pray for our finances to improve so my little sons can have a secure future. I pray for my husband to stay safe and sound and not get hurt. ‘Ula a-Sa'idi (36), a married mother of nine from a-Shati’ Refugee Camp in Gaza City, spoke about the difficulty of depending on fishing: My husband Ahmad (42) has worked as a fisherman since we got married 18 years ago. It's a demanding job and even though all my relatives are fishermen, I don't like it because it's very dangerous. But it's our only income, so we have to live with the risk. We're in a financial crisis. After the blockade started, my husband's income dropped to 700 shekels (~210 USD) a month. Now, even though he works hard, we make 500 shekels a month at most. That's a pretty low income and isn't enough for our needs. I used to get a benefit of 1,800 shekels (~530 USD) from the Welfare Ministry every three or four months. After four years, it dropped to 700 shekels. That's not enough to live on and sometimes isn't even enough to cover our basic daily needs or buy new holiday clothes for the children. Since the coronavirus outbreak, things have grown even worse because the economic situation in Gaza is bad and people are buying less fish. There are fewer foreigners in Gaza so there are fewer large events and orders. My husband works on his brother's boat with him. He goes out to sea at around 3:00 P.M. and gets back after 3:00 A.M. When he goes fishing I pray to God to keep him safe, away from the soldiers and their gunfire. I can't relax until he gets home or calls me. When he's at sea I'm very anxious, especially when I hear the sound of shooting at fishermen. I get nervous and call him right away to make sure he's okay. My kids also get anxious when they hear gunfire, wondering which of the fishermen was arrested and hoping it wasn't their dad. I try to calm them down and tell them to be patient, and that their dad will come home. When my husband is late, my son Anas (9) walks to the port of Gaza port to wait for him because he's so worried. Fishing is the worst profession for a wife. In winter my husband suffers from extreme cold, so I worry about that, too, as well as the dangers of the sea and mostly the shooting at fishermen. Whenever someone tells me that soldiers opened fire at fishermen, I feel I'm about to lose my husband. I pray to God to bring him back to us safe and sound. The military arrested my husband several times, most recently in 2018. In 2007 he was held for half a year. They also seized two of our boats and four engines and are holding them at the port of Ashdod. Usually, the military doesn't return the boats and engines it takes. I hope our situation improves one day. I wish they would give us back our boats so my husband could have his own boat, and that they'd expand the permitted fishing range. I want to live in dignity, secure my children's future and satisfy their needs and wishes. I hope they won't become fishermen. It's a tough, dangerous job. ‘A.M. (49), a married mother of nine from a-Shati’ Refugee Camp in Gaza City whose husband is a fish merchant, related in a testimony she gave on 9 August 2020: I got married in 1989. My husband has been working in fishing since he was 12. He worked with his father, who was a fishmonger, and with other relatives. I have nine children, ranging in age from six to 29. We live by the coast and many people in our family work in fishing. In our first years of marriage, there were plenty of fish and there wasn't much competition. My husband would go to the fish market at 3:00 A.M., bring home a large quantity of fish, clean them and take them to the market. Usually, he'd sell them all within two hours and come home. We had a good income of about 3,000 to 4,000 (~890-1,190 USD) shekels a month. It went on like that for years, and we enjoyed a high standard of living. We bought our own home and I had everything I needed. I even bought myself gold jewelry. We raised our children at a time when our finances were great. They lacked for nothing. We lived happily and comfortably. About 13 years ago, when Israel started its blockade on Gaza, things changed. Business suffered, the fishing zone was limited and sometimes fishing was banned altogether. Fish became scarce and costly for the merchants and the consumers. People used to buy four or five kilos in summer, when fish were plentiful. Now they only buy one or two kilos. Sometimes, my husband has to bring some or all of the fish back home. He stays at the market through the afternoon or evening, trying in vain to sell them. The power shortages make it impossible to keep the fish refrigerated, and sometimes they go off. Since the blockade started, our finances have deteriorated. My husband doesn't own a stall in the market, so he rents a space a meter or two wide for about 10 shekels (~3 USD) a day. My children work with him selling fish, but our total income doesn't exceed 1,500 shekels (~445 USD) a month for a family of 14. Two of my sons are married and one has children, but we all live in the same house. Although we're a large family, we don't get a welfare benefit as my husband is self-employed. To pay off debts and pay for my children’s weddings, I sold all my gold jewelry and 250 square meters of land I'd bought. One of our sons dropped out of university because we couldn't keep paying the tuition. Since the coronavirus crisis started, the situation has become worse: restaurants and hotels hardly ever buy fish because they're closed for long periods and Gaza has no visitors because the crossings are closed. The crisis has really hurt my husband's work at the market. It's very tough not being able to meet my children's needs. I couldn't buy them clothes for the holidays and for the start of the school year. They have to use last year’s clothes, backpacks and even shoes. My heart aches because I really wanted to give them new things! But we can't afford it and every time they ask for something, like going on a trip, I put them off again and again. It hurts, because I'd like to see their eyes filled with joy. The situation is depressing and suffocating, but I know there's no other work for my husband or for our children. I hope our situation improves.

9 September 2020