UN Says War Took Toll on Gaza Clean Water Access

A picture shows a street in Gaza City's Rimal area that was bombed by an Israeli air strike. (File/AFP)
A picture shows a street in Gaza City's Rimal area that was bombed by an Israeli air strike. (File/AFP)
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UN Says War Took Toll on Gaza Clean Water Access

A picture shows a street in Gaza City's Rimal area that was bombed by an Israeli air strike. (File/AFP)
A picture shows a street in Gaza City's Rimal area that was bombed by an Israeli air strike. (File/AFP)

The United Nations says approximately 800,000 people in Gaza do not have regular access to clean piped water, as nearly 50 percent of the water network was damaged in the recent fighting.

Quoting Gaza’s public works and housing ministry, the UN ‘s office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said nearly 17,000 residential and commercial units have been damaged or destroyed in the 11-day campaign.

These include 769 housing and commercial units that have been rendered uninhabitable, at least 1,042 units in some 258 buildings which have been destroyed and another 14,538 units that have suffered minor damage, according to The Associated Press.

A cease-fire took effect Friday after an 11-day campaign that left more than 250 dead — the vast majority Palestinians — and brought widespread devastation to the already impoverished Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

The UN said 53 education facilities, six hospitals and 11 primary health care centers have been damaged since May 10.

One health center was severely damaged, the UN said, while one hospital is not operational because of lack of electricity. Schools in Gaza remain closed, affecting almost 600,000 children.



Hezbollah Chief Says Attack Targeted Israeli Base Near Tel Aviv

People listen to a speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at a coffee shop in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
People listen to a speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at a coffee shop in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
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Hezbollah Chief Says Attack Targeted Israeli Base Near Tel Aviv

People listen to a speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at a coffee shop in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
People listen to a speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at a coffee shop in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said his group's attack on Israel on Sunday targeted a military intelligence base near Tel Aviv around 100 kilometers from the Israeli-Lebanese border.

The "main target for the operation" inside Israel was "the Glilot base -- the main Israeli military intelligence base,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech.

Israel launched a wave of airstrikes across southern Lebanon early Sunday in what it called a preemptive strike to avert a large Hezbollah rocket and missile attack. The group said it fired hundreds of rockets and drones to avenge the killing of a top commander last month.

Nasrallah denied statements by the Israeli military that its pre-emptive strikes had stopped a wider attack by the group.

Israel's military said one soldier with the navy was killed and two others were wounded either by an interceptor for incoming fire, or by shrapnel from one. Two Hezbollah fighters and a militant from Amal movement were killed, the groups said.

Hezbollah called its attack on Israeli military positions an initial response to the killing of Fouad Shukur in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut last month. Nasrallah said assaults on Israel will continue “because there is still the response of (allies) Iran and Yemen.”

Nasrallah said Hezbollah had not planned a larger attack, specifically denying Israeli military statements that the group had intended to fire thousands of projectiles.
But he acknowledged that the operation had been delayed for several reasons, including what he called a "mobilization" of Israeli and American military assets in the region.