Since Israel’s latest intensification of attacks on Gaza, which followed the 7 October assault by Hamas on Israeli communities close to the fence around the territory, even the rudimentary water provision has been obliterated. All three of Gaza’s main municipal desalination facilities are out of action, as are all the pumping stations on its water network. “All sewage treatment plants are also out of service and raw sewage is a huge threat [to the] people, aquifer and sea,” Attili said, adding that an estimated 130,000 cubic metres of wastewater was currently being siphoned straight into the eastern Mediterranean.