A wall of a large, elevated cesspool collapsed today in the Gaza Strip. The cesspool was apparently uphill from the Arab village, Umm Naser. (Is that insane kind of setup normal!?) The reporting of the incident is, of course, skewed, but here are some possible facts I’ve garnered from several different sources:
- Something was going on to dramatically increase the inflow into the cesspool in recent days.
- Three or four people are dead, around twenty-five people are injured, and many more might be missing.
- Hamas showed up, maybe to help, maybe just to cause more trouble. They shot at government officials who apparently showed up to sight-see.
- Israel sent troops to assist in evacuation, cleanup, and transportation to Israeli hospitals. I’m not sure if the PA and Hamas actually allowed them to help.
- Arab AP writer, Ibrahim Barzak, appears to have deliberately worded his article to make Hamas look better and Israel look worse.
- The U.N. had warned the PA about this cesspool in 2004.
- Funding was available to build a new waste water treatment facility, however the project was unable to proceed because Palestinians (Hamas?) continued to use the area to fire rockets into Israel.
- Palestinian officials are blaming Israel for their own bizarre setup, which is beginning to look to me like an actual set up. I.e. the cesspool was placed and engineered to fail.
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