Saed al-Atbash of the Gaza City wastewater department said on Wednesday that the power shortage has disrupted the plant’s waste processing, according to the Associated Press.

He added that the spillage could harm the environment and affect 20,000 people.

Fuel and electricity shortages in Gaza have worsened in recent months due to Egypt’s closure of Gaza tunnels. These tunnels are the only lifeline for Palestinians living under the Israeli siege.

Gaza’s sole power plant supplies up to 65 megawatts, about a third of the enclave’s electricity needs.

However, with the severe fuel shortage, power cuts have recently been lasting for 12 hours daily.

Gaza blockade

Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza since 2007. Residents of Gaza are blockaded by land, sea and air.

The blockade is denying the Palestinian people access to medical supplies and food.

Hospitals face critical shortages, with 40 percent of all essential medicines at zero stock level, according to a report by the Canada-based Global Research.

Out of the 1.7 million Palestinians living in Gaza 54 percent are food-insecure including 428,000 children.

Israel’s illegal blockade has also led to a massive shortage of building materials to repair the homes, hospitals, schools and water/sanitation infrastructure that have been destroyed/damaged by the regime in the last 5 years.

Most of Gaza’s water supplies are polluted and unsafe to drink. There are power cuts every day as well.

The International Red Cross and the United Nations have found the Israeli regime’s siege of Gaza to be illegal under international law.

In September 2011, five independent UN rights experts made a report to the UN Human Rights Council which said that Israel’s siege of Gaza amounted to collective punishment of the Palestinian people and was a “flagrant contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law” under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Prominent political thinker Noam Chomsky has described the Gaza Strip as “the world’s largest open air prison.”

SHI/SHI