The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the town of Kafr Aqab, located north of Jerusalem, which is the largest urban area in the Holy City, lacks running water, and no one seems to care.

She said in a press investigation that the town's residents have access to water only a few hours a week, cannot wash clothes or floors, and are forced to stop bathing.

She added that running water is still cut off in Kafr Aqab, a sprawling area in northern East Jerusalem with a population of more than 100,000 people. A citizen whose home has running water for more than one day a week is considered lucky.

Tens of thousands of others have access to water for only 4 to 9 hours a week, according to an investigation conducted by left-wing Israeli newspaper journalist Nir Hasson.

Continuous deterioration

Hassoun confirmed that the situation, which has been going on for two months, is deteriorating, adding that those who used to receive water two days a week have had it reduced to one day and only a few hours.

Al-Quds Maternity Hospital in Kafr Aqab in East Jerusalem is also suffering from a lack of running water. Haaretz quoted hospital director Taqi Al-Qaisi as saying that they are forced to constantly check the amount of remaining water, “We now get water one or two days a week, however, the water does not reach the upper floor because there is not enough pressure in the pipes.”

The newspaper follows up on Al-Qaisi's statement by saying that, in light of the lack of regular water supply, the hospital administration is forced to spend a lot of money weekly on water tanks to ensure that new mothers are able to shower after giving birth.

Al-Qaisi says that various government agencies are aware of the crisis, including the Ministry of Health and the Jerusalem Municipality, and none have offered to help.

Dark picture

The Haaretz investigation painted a bleak picture of the conditions in Kafr Aqab, which is officially part of Jerusalem, and most of its residents are Arabs who hold Israeli identity cards. However, the authorities almost completely neglect the area.

Many streets remain unpaved, and drainage systems collapse every winter, flooding homes and streets. According to the newspaper, the town also lacks a police station, technicians, or service providers, and there is not a single playground or green space for the tens of thousands of children who live there.

The streets are filled with sewage water that collects in the form of puddles, and residents complained that the crew responsible for opening the sewers only works for some time because it also needs water to operate the equipment.

To address the shortage, residents began buying water from tankers run by independent businessmen, where the cost of filling two large containers with a capacity of 3,000 liters ranges between 300 and 350 shekels ($85 and $95), depending on the height of the building.

The phone, the Internet, and stray dogs

Al-Qaisi stated that telephone and Internet services were recently cut off from the hospital for two weeks, and employees were only able to work using mobile phones.

He added that herds of stray dogs roam the area, and residents live in neighborhoods that suffer from poor infrastructure and difficult living conditions, and they depend for their livelihood on the Qalandiya checkpoint when they cross to reach workplaces and educational institutions in the Holy City. The road leading to the checkpoint is littered with burnt concrete blocks, garbage, and dust.

Severe deterioration

Although Kafr Aqab is not a miserable place with high-rise buildings and many of its residents are middle-class, living conditions there have deteriorated severely since the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip on October 7, as the Haaretz journalistic investigation presented.

According to the journalist's investigation, the crisis caused a significant disruption to life in the region. Schools canceled summer camps, and patients were transferred to hospitals inside Jerusalem for fear of water shortages.

The impact is most evident in daily life, as residents avoid showering, washing floors, running washing machines, and even cleaning toilets. Within the first few weeks of the outbreak of war, Israel closed the Qalandiya checkpoint, so patients, schoolchildren, university students, and workers were unable to reach hospitals and educational institutions. And workplaces in other parts of Jerusalem.

Source: Haaretz