Palestinian groups have said that Egypt’s recent action of flooding the Gaza-Egypt borders with sea water, on the excuse of fighting militants in the area, is inhumane and must be stopped, effective immediately.
Egypt Is Flooding Tunnels That Gaza Residents Need For Goods &…
Egypt is flooding tunnels that Gaza residents need for goods & trading
Posted by NowThis on Tuesday, October 13, 2015
The Middle East Monitor reports that on September 11th, 2015, the Egyptian army started flooding the Palestinian-Egyptian borders with massive amounts of sea water in an attempt to destroy smuggling tunnels; once the main lifeline of Gaza in the light of the strict internationally-backed Israeli siege.
Also, in a special program entitled, “Behind the Headlines,” on Aljazeera English, residents in Rafah, a town divided between Gaza and Egypt by international political agreements in the 1980’s, expressed outrage about the Egyptian government’s decision to flood the area with damaging sea water from the Mediterranean.
Residents said with hostilities from Israel, the only place they can look up to is their fellow Arabian brothers, Egypt, but that hope is fading away as Egypt continues to flood the area with the salty water which is threatening their survival.
“Rafah’s underground water. This will damage the aquifer which means no potable water. It will also deprive the farmers from using the water for irrigation and growing their plants. It will cause landslides, and could lead to the collapse of houses along the borders. Foundations here are already weak from all the shelling. There is nothing stable about our lives. Our days are full of horror and fear,” a resident by the name of Radwan told the network.
The Palestinian Water Authority has also warned that the sea water flooding the area could cause collapses of the soil layers and would also pollute underground water reserves.
To further expose the suffering of local residents to the rest of the world as a result of Egypt’s action, the Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian Democratic Front, the Palestinian Popular Front, Al-Mujahideen Movement, Al-Ahrar Movement and the Popular Committee said in a joint statement that Egypt is causing havoc to residents and world leaders must act to, “stop this crime against the Palestinians and their land.”
“The fact that Egypt has flooded the Palestinian-Egyptian borders with sea water is shocking. This measure destroys vast areas of agricultural land, pollutes underground water reserves, harms the houses of Palestinian residents in the nearby areas and kills all signs of life there,” the statement added.
The group also said they are surprised that Egypt, which is supposed to be a supporter of the Palestinian cause, has taken this retrogressive stance unilaterally without even taking into consideration the negative impact on residents.
However, Hamas — the government controlling the Gaza area — said in a separate statement that it had been conducting official talks with the Egyptian authorities in order to stop the flooding, but failed to give details on when the talks will materialize.
Egypt has said it is working on a two kilometer ‘buffer zone’ along the Palestinian-Egyptian border in order to fight armed militant groups who have been using the area as a hub to launch attacks on Egyptian troops. Clashes in the Gaza area have intensified since the current Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, deposed the democratic elected government of Mohamed Morsi, which led to chaos and violence in the country.
You want to support Anonymous Independent & Investigative News? Please, follow us on Twitter: Follow @AnonymousNewsHQ
This Article (Palestinian Groups Slam Egypt Over Flooding The Gaza Borders With Sea Water) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and AnonHQ.com.
