As Israel continues bombardment in Gaza killing more than 27,000 Palestinians since October 7, reports have emerged revealing a harrowing situation where Palestinian women are compelled to shave their heads.
The severe shortage of water, exacerbated by longstanding geopolitical tensions and Israel’s move to cut water to Gaza, has forced people to resort to drastic measures for basic hygiene.
The scarcity of this essential resource has disproportionately affected women, leading to dire consequences such as the shaving of heads, Middle East Eye reported.
This distressing reality, coupled with ongoing genocidal acts, highlights the urgent need for international attention and collaborative efforts to address the root causes of the water crisis in the region and alleviate the suffering faced by vulnerable populations, particularly Palestinian women.
In the ongoing five-month intense Israeli bombing of Gaza, over 27,500 people have lost their lives, and more than 1.9 million Palestinians are displaced, facing a critical lack of clean water and basic hygiene facilities.
The already dire water situation, with 96 percent deemed unfit for consumption pre-war due to the 2007 Israeli blockade, worsened when the Israeli government, following Energy Minister Israel Katz’s directive on October 9, severed the water supply to Gaza.
The Middle East Eye report added that satellite images reveal that the Israeli army took control of key water desalination plants in the northern part of Gaza by October 30 and in the southern part of Gaza City by November 1, aggravating the water crisis.
