Water runs out at UN shelters in Gaza; medics fear for patients as Israeli ground offensive looms
Gaza City (AP)/PTI: Water has run out at UN shelters across Gaza as thousands packed into the courtyard of the besieged territory's largest hospital as a refuge of last resort from a looming Israeli ground offensive and overwhelmed doctors struggled to care for patients they fear will die once generators run out of fuel.
Palestinian civilians across Gaza, already battered by years of conflict, were struggling for survival Sunday in the face of an unprecedented Israeli operation against the territory following a Hamas attack on Oct 7 that killed 1,300 Israelis.
Israel has cut off the flow of food, medicine, water and electricity to Gaza, pounded neighbourhoods with airstrikes and told the estimated 1 million residents of the north to flee south ahead of Israel's planned attack. The Gaza Health Ministry said more than 2,300 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting erupted last weekend.
Relief groups called for the protection of the over 2 million civilians in Gaza urging an emergency corridor be established for the transfer of humanitarian aid.
"The difference with this escalation is we don't have medical aid coming in from outside, the border is closed, electricity is off and this constitutes a high danger for our patients," said Dr Mohammed Qandeel, who works at Nasser Hospital in the southern Khan Younis area.
Doctors in the evacuation zone said they couldn't relocate their patients safely, so they decided to stay as well to care for them.
"We shall not evacuate the hospital even if it costs us our lives," said Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the head of pediatrics at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia.
If they left, the seven newborns in the intensive care unit would die, he said. And even if they could move them, there is nowhere for them to go in the 40-km-long (25-mile-long) coastal territory. "Hospitals are full," Abu Safiya said. The wounded stream in every day with severed limbs and life-threatening injuries, he said.
Other doctors feared for the lives of patients dependent on ventilators and those suffering from complex blast wounds needing around-the-clock care. Doctors worried entire hospital facilities would be shut down and many would die as the last of fuel stocks powering their generators came close to running out. United Nations humanitarian monitors estimated this could happen by Monday.
At Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the heart of the evacuation zone, medical officials estimated at least 35,000 men, women and children crammed into the large open grounds, in the lobby and in the hallways, hoping the location would give them protection from the fighting. "Their situation is very difficult," said hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia.
Hundreds of wounded continue to come to the hospital every day, he said.
About half a million Gaza residents have taken refuge in UN shelters across the territory and are running out of water, said Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, known by the acronym UNRWA. "Gaza is running dry," she said, adding that UN teams have also begun to ration water.
Touma said a quarter of a million people in Gaza moved to shelters over the past 24 hours, the majority of which are UN schools where "clean water has actually run out," said Inas Hamdan, another UNRWA spokeswoman.
Across Gaza, families rationed dwindling water supplies, with many forced to drink dirty or brackish water.
"I am very happy that I was able to brush my teeth today, can you imagine what lengths we have reached?" said Shaima al-Farra, in Khan Younis.
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Assam's Byrnihat tops global pollution list; Delhi most polluted capital: Report
New Delhi (PTI): Thirteen of the world's top 20 most polluted cities are in India, with Byrnihat in Assam topping the list, according to a new report published on Tuesday.
The World Air Quality Report 2024 by Swiss air quality technology company IQAir said Delhi remains the most polluted capital city globally, while India ranked as the world's fifth most polluted country in 2024, down from third in 2023.
The report said India saw a 7 percent decline in PM2.5 concentrations in 2024, averaging 50.6 micrograms per cubic metre, compared to 54.4 micrograms per cubic metre in 2023. Yet, 13 of the world's 20 most polluted cities are in India.
Air pollution in Delhi worsened, with the annual average PM2.5 concentration rising from 102.4 micrograms per cubic metre in 2023 to 108.3 micrograms per cubic metre in 2024.
The Indian cities in the world's top 20 most polluted cities are Byrnihat, Delhi, Punjab's Mullanpur, Faridabad, Loni, Gurugram, Ganganagar, Greater Noida, Bhiwadi, Muzaffarnagar, Hanumangarh and Noida.
Overall, 35 percent of the Indian cities reported annual PM2.5 levels exceeding 10 times the WHO limit of 5 micrograms per cubic metre, the report said.
The high level of pollution in Byrnihat, a town on the border of Assam and Meghalaya, is due to emissions from local factories, including distilleries, iron and steel plants.
Delhi grapples with high air pollution year-round and the problem worsens in winter when unfavourable meteorological conditions, combined with vehicular emissions, paddy-straw burning, firecrackers and other local pollution sources, make the air quality hazardous.
Air pollution remains a serious health risk in India, reducing life expectancy by an estimated 5.2 years.
According to a Lancet Planetary Health study published last year, about 1.5 million deaths in India every year from 2009 to 2019 were potentially linked to long-term exposure to PM2.5 pollution.
PM2.5 refers to tiny air pollution particles smaller than 2.5 microns, which can enter the lungs and bloodstream, leading to breathing problems, heart disease and even cancer. Sources include vehicle exhaust, industrial emissions and the burning of wood or crop waste.
Former WHO chief scientist and health ministry advisor Soumya Swaminathan said India has made progress in air quality data collection but lacks sufficient action.
"We have the data; now we need action. Some solutions are easy like replacing biomass with LPG. India already has a scheme for this, but we must further subsidise additional cylinders. The first cylinder is free, but the poorest families, especially women, should receive higher subsidies. This will improve their health and reduce outdoor air pollution," she told PTI in an interview.
In cities, expanding public transport and imposing fines on certain cars could help. "A mix of incentives and penalties is necessary," she said.
"Finally, strict enforcement of emission laws is crucial. Industries and construction sites must comply with regulations and install equipment to cut emissions instead of taking shortcuts," the former director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research added.
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