Millions of gallons spill from Gaza’s sewage into Mediterranean daily as Israel blocks reconstruction
Nir Hasson reports in Haaretz on 15 October 2026:
Raw sewage from Gaza continues to flow into the Mediterranean at a rate of 40,000 cubic meters a day, according to workers with the U.N. agencies UNICEF and UNRWA, as Israeli restrictions on equipment and fuel hamper efforts to repair wastewater treatment facilities.
The problem is expected to worsen with the winter rains, which are likely to further increase the flow of sewage from Gaza into the sea. Several sewage reservoirs in Gaza are at risk of overflowing during heavy rainfall.
The largest and most dangerous sewage reservoir is the Sheikh Radwan sewage reservoir in central Gaza City – it holds hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of wastewater, and heavy rain could cause it to overflow, endangering thousands of residents living in the surrounding area.
Moreover, only one of six pumps that previously operated at the reservoir is still functioning. UNICEF has been working in recent weeks to repair the pumps and lower the water level in the reservoir ahead of the winter.
During the war, Israel completely destroyed Gaza’s wastewater collection and treatment system, leaving all five treatment plants that had been operating in the Strip inoperable. Although a year has passed since the start of the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, Israel still refuses to allow the United Nations to reconstruct the facilities. Israel says the equipment needed to repair the plants is considered “dual-use” equipment, meaning it could also be used by Hamas to enhance its military capabilities.
Throughout the war, most of the pollution remained deep underground amid the water crisis that Gaza was facing. However, as water supplies to the Strip have resumed, the volume of the sewage has also increased sharply, and it is now being discharged into the sea without adequate treatment.
Before the war, pollution from Gaza repeatedly forced the Ashkelon desalination plant to shut down and prompted authorities to ban swimming at beaches in southern Israel. Some experts believe sewage from Gaza may also have contributed to the outbreak of microscopic algae last month, which led to the days-long shutdown of most of Israel’s desalination plants.
Meanwhile, Gaza residents, Israelis living in communities near the Gaza border and Israeli soldiers deployed in the area continue to contend with a surge in rodents.
Last month, Haaretz reported on a rat and mouse infestation in border communities and their agricultural fields.
Dr. Yoav Motro, who heads the Agriculture Ministry’s vertebrate pest control division, told Haaretz that the outbreak involves several species, ranging from mice and jirds – small rodents common in agricultural fields – to rats.
Experts say there is no single explanation for the drastic increase in the rodent population, but Motro believes the most important factors were the unusually rainy winter near the Gaza border and the absence of severe heat waves in the spring. Together, he said, the conditions allowed rodents to reproduce particularly quickly.
Representatives of the Agriculture Ministry, the Eshkol Regional Council and the National Emergency Management Authority met Wednesday and decided to increase the budget for combating the rodent infestation from 1 million shekels to 4 million shekels. In addition to the Agriculture Ministry and the Tkuma Directorate, the National Emergency Management Authority will now also help fund half of the program.
As part of efforts to combat the rodent problem, the Agriculture Ministry developed a new rodent-control method in agricultural fields, in cooperation with Elta Systems – using drones to scan fields from the air and identify rodent burrows, tracks and droppings. After mapping the area and identifying suspected sites, a drone is dispatched to apply pesticides in targeted areas.
So far, the Agriculture Ministry has treated around 40,000 dunams (9,900 acres), primarily in southern Israel, along the Gaza border. The area has since seen a decline in the number of rats and mice, both in agricultural fields and inside Israeli Gaza-border communities.
At the same time, the IDF has also begun using drones inside the Gaza Strip to disperse rodent-control pesticides around Israeli military outposts. Animal rights organization Let the Animals Live has recently received complaints from soldiers about nine dogs that died near one of these military outposts in Gaza, apparently as a result of poisoning following the pest-control efforts.
According to the organization, since October 8, it has received several reports of dogs that appeared healthy until shortly before their deaths, and then died within a short period of time.
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said in response: “In accordance with the policy of the political leadership, as long as Hamas has not been disarmed, the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip will not begin. At the same time, the IDF, through COGAT, allows the United Nations and international organizations to repair infrastructure and advance humanitarian water and sanitation projects in the Gaza Strip. As part of these efforts, and in preparation for the winter season, additional essential equipment and supplies have entered the Strip in recent months to strengthen water and sanitation infrastructure, including pipes, spare parts, generator oil, sewage pumping trucks, fuel for pumps and more.”
This article is reproduced in its entirety