'Mekorot' is the name of Israel's national water company, to Gazans it means something else

Jihad Qasim is a barber and works from a tent on a street of ruined buildings. (ABC News) Link copiedShareShare articleOn a dusty roadside in west Gaza City, Jihad Qasim tunes out the ceaseless rattle of the passing traffic and focuses on his clientele. There's the kerbside consultation: "You want to grow it?" he asks one young customer. "Let it grow so we can do a curly hairstyle?" And for an older client, empathy: "You go to work, and come back empty-handed," he agrees. Jihad loses himself in his work, singing quietly as he skims his trimmer across a client's head, before he returns to one of Gaza's many problems. Jihad pays for electricity that is provided by private generator owners, but even then, it is unreliable. (ABC News) "You know, the electricity today is so expensive," he notes. Twenty-eight shekels is about $14, which must be paid to private generator owners, or his trimmers can't be charged. "If the electricity is there, you can work, finish, cut, but when it goes, you just stop." Almost eight months after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended major hostilities in Gaza, although low-level conflict grinds on, daily life for the strip's 2.1 million residents is governed by the unpredictability of the essentials: power, water, and food. Daily life remains a struggle for Gaza's 2.1 million residents. (Reuters: Dawoud Abu Alkas) Water pumped in from Israel runs through a network of damaged pipes and is unsafe to drink, or often, to wash with. It's known as "Mekorot" — the name of Israel's national water company. His customer in the barber's chair agrees. "Not even for washing clothes. When your wife washes the clothes, they get ruined," he says. Medecins Sans Frontieres delivers millions of litres of water per day inside Gaza. (Supplied: Medecins Sans Frontieres) In December, Israel banned 37 international NGOs from operating in Gaza. Those that remain, including Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and Mercy Corps, spend a great deal of time and money treating water so it is safe to drink. "We end up having to make a lot of the water with reverse osmosis water plants," says MSF' aid worker Craig Kenzie. The NGO delivers millions of litres of water inside Gaza. Mr Kenzie says new machinery and many of the materials used to repair the treatment plants are blocked from entering Gaza. Some aid agencies that are allowed to operate in Gaza treat water inside the territory and then truck it to distribution points. (Reuters: Mahmoud Issa) "So these are things we've had to kind of Frankenstein together by salvaging parts to make sure that we still end up having water provided for the people," he says. "Those all run on generator electricity, as well as a whole fleet of water trucks to distribute it across Gaza." Israel restriicts the entry into Gaza of earthmoving equipment to clear rubble, generators, engine oil, and any building material considered "dual use" These "dual-use" items include the essential materials for rebuilding in Gaza, like plastic pipes and engine oil to lubricate machinery such as generators. The water that is pumped in from Israel through a network of shattered pipes is often contaminated. (Reuters: Ramadan Abed) Without pipes, fixing water plants and infrastructure damaged in two years of war is impossible. "We would much prefer to be helping repair the water systems," says Kate Phillips-Barrasso from Mercy Corps. "But that is really not possible at this time due to the restrictions that have been placed on the items that can be brought in to repair systems." Restrictions on supplies and international staff are also affecting medical care provided by groups such as MSF. "We've been trying to continue to run our operations with those teams that we have on the ground and the limited supplies that remain," says Mr Kenzie. MSF operates temporary field hospitals and a 50-bed paediatric ward in Al-Rantisi hospital. "We're going into a very precarious situation now where we're having major ruptures on a lot of the drugs that we did have, particularly ones for non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and so forth," says Mr Kenzie. There's a critical shortage of basic medical supplies in Gaza. (Reuters: Ramadan Abed) "But right around that corner, there's lots of concerns about the dressing materials for the wounds that we're getting. "And we've even been looking at whether or not we've had to reduce the number of beds that we operate in the paediatric hospital just because we're worried about not being able to get any supplies in." Under the terms of the October ceasefire, Israel would withdraw progressively towards its border and allow more aid and commercial supplies into the territory, while Hamas disarmed. Foreign aid money would eventually flow in to pay for rebuilding. It's an arrangement "based on reciprocity," says Nickolay Mladenov, the high envoy on Donald Trump's Board of Peace, which is overseeing the ceasefire and eventual re

'Mekorot' is the name of Israel's national water company, to Gazans it means something else

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