Leicester City’s Premier League match at Cardiff on Saturday will go ahead following the death of owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha in a helicopter crash.

Srivaddhanaprabha and four others were killed in the crash outside the King Power Stadium on Saturday.

Tuesday’s EFL Cup tie between Leicester and Southampton was postponed.

There will be a minute’s silence before the 15:00 GMT kick-off in Cardiff and players will wear black armbands.

In a statement, Leicester said they would make an announcement “in due course” on the rearranged date for the cup tie with Southampton.

The club opened a book of condolence outside the King Power Stadium on Tuesday, while fans continue to lay flowers, scarves and shirts at the ground in tribute to the chairman.

Srivaddhanaprabha’s wife, Aimon, and son, Aiyawatt, laid a wreath in the middle of the pitch at the stadium on Monday before embracing players and staff gathered around the centre circle.

Foxes players also visited the stadium on Tuesday.

Nursara Suknamai, Kaveporn Punpare, pilot Eric Swaffer and his partner Izabela Roza Lechowicz also died in the crash, police said.

An investigation into the cause of the crash, which saw the helicopter spiral out of control, is ongoing with aircraft’s digital flight data recorder already recovered.

Leicester are currently 12th in the Premier League on 13 points, while Cardiff are 17th with five points from 10 matches.

A house is more than just a space to inhabit. It’s a sanctuary, a stage for countless family milestones — big and small — and a blank slate upon which to build unique holiday traditions. The process of turning a house into a home takes time and dedication, and it starts by finding the ideal décor that will serve as the backdrop for decades of memories to come.

You may think of Home Depot as the go-to place for garage renovation supplies, hardware knick-knacks, or daunting DIY flooring projects. But you might not know that Home Depot also stocks a wide variety of furniture and décor items, so you can decorate any room in your home according to your precise tastes.

Below are a few hand-selected items that fall into four different design buckets to inspire your creative side — just in time for the holiday season.

Whether your home dynamic consists of just you, you and a roommate or partner, or comes complete with a menagerie of eclectic humans and animals, these cozy bohemian pieces will turn any space from bland and impersonal to bold and inspired.

With unique textures, natural wood furniture, funky tabletop accessories, and blankets that beg to be wrapped around shoulders, these items infuse warmth, contentment, and positive energy into every nook and cranny of your home. Don’t let the laid-back feel of this style fool you, though — it packs an aesthetic punch that lends an air of exoticness to your home environment.

Interior Furniture

A Saudi-UAE-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthi rebels has sent more than 10,000 additional troops towards the rebel-held port city of Hodeidah, according to Yemeni government officials.

The deployment is part of a planned new offensive aimed at securing “areas liberated” from the Houthis, a military official told AFP news agency on Tuesday.

According to the unnamed official, the mission is expected to commence “within days” and forces from Sudan, part of the coalition, had moved in to “secure” areas around the strategic city.

For the past 10 days, Houthi rebels have stationed fighters on the rooftops of buildings in Hodeidah city, AFP reported government military officials as saying.

The Yemen conflict began in 2014 when the Houthi toppled the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and took control of the capital, Sanaa. Saudi Arabia led an intervention in 2015 to fight the Houthis.

Civilians have borne the brunt of the conflict, which has sparked the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and a cholera epidemic. 

According to the United Nations, at least 10,000 people have been killed since the coalition’s intervention. The death toll, however, has not been updated in years and is likely to be far higher.

The Red Sea port city of Hodeidah has strategic importance in the conflict. It is the only port held by the Houthis, which serves as the entry point for the bulk of Yemen’s commercial imports and aid supplies.

The Saudis have accused the Houthis of using the port to smuggle in weapons from Iran. The UAE has said the Houthis generate $30m to $40m a month in revenue from the port.

Worsening food crisis

Last week, the UN’s humanitarian chief warned that the situation in Yemen was far worse than previously estimated.

Mark Lowcock, UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said 14 million people in Yemen face a serious threat of famine, noting that the worsening food crisis was largely the result of the fighting around Hodeidah.

The coalition launched an aerial bombing campaign in June 2018 aimed at pushing the Houthis out of the Red Sea city.

After UN-backed peace talks collapsed in September, the Saudi-UAE-led coalition announced it would relaunch an assault on Hodeidah.

Since then, Saudi-led forces have focused their raids on the city limits and other parts of the surrounding province.

Last week, air strikes in the province killed dozens of civilians, the UN said, which the Houthis blamed on the coalition.

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies

A few weeks ago, after ending her engagement to Saturday Night Live star (and song namesake) Pete Davidson, Ariana Grande posted a notable message to Instagram. “Can’t believe I almost let my anxiety ruin this for me today!!!” she wrote while posing in Elphaba-green makeup. “Not today Satan. Not tomorrow or the next day either not no more u can suck my big green dick. Finna sing my heart out and be a big walking vessel of love bye.”

In addition to the words being a fierce declaration of self-care, Ari was referring to her appearance on NBC’s A Very Wicked Halloween show that aired Monday night (October 29). On it, she belted “The Wizard and I” in a green dress to an audience of mini witches and Dorothys. It’s a very cute clip, especially because the singer’s smile reveals just how big of a deal it was for her to be there — and she offered further proof via a pic with the OG Elphaba herself, Idina Menzel.

It’s also just nice to see Ariana back onstage. After taking a brief break from the spotlight this fall (including a canceled appearance on SNL), she’s fully back now, preparing for her upcoming ambitious Sweetener tour in 2019. And ahead of that, she’s also sharing even more performance footage to get Arianators pumped.

For example, a full orchestra-backed “God Is a Woman” rendition that makes Ari the center of a moody storm that keeps rising and rising. It’s wonderful!

This lush, densely orchestrated “God Is a Woman” version is from Ari’s upcoming special Ariana Grande Live At the BBC, which she recorded in September and which is due to air next month. Rolling Stone reports Ari and the crew of musicians tackled ever Sweetener track at the show, as well as “Dangerous Woman,” “Love Me Harder,” and her excellent cover of Thundercat’s “Them Changes.”

If the Sweetener shows are anything like this, fans may have to make sure their feet are firmly planted on the ground so they don’t literally float away. Check out both performances above, and make sure you prepare yourself for November 1, when Sweetener tour tickets go on sale.

Chelsea coach Marco Ianni has been fined £6,000 by the Football Association for his celebration after a 96th-minute equaliser in a 2-2 draw against Manchester United.

Ianni celebrated in front of the United bench, sparking a reaction from United manager Jose Mourinho.

The FA said Ianni had admitted an “improper conduct charge”.

Mourinho was not punished by the FA for his part in the fracas at Stamford Bridge on 20 October.

Whether it’s Gilgamesh or urban legends, the art of storytelling has been around for thousands of years. In the case of creepypastas, just replace the campfire with a computer screen.

For those that have never experienced this internet genre of storytelling, creepypastas are horror-related stories, images, or videos. The name is based off the term “copypasta” because the stories are typically copied and pasted all over the internet. 

But over the past few years, the popularity of the genre has dwindled after tragic events caused the community to reel itself back and stifle creation. 

Despite its struggles, creepypasta hasn’t quite met its own horror movie ending, but rather turned into something else. Shifting from its home in the corners of the /x/ board of 4Chan and r/NoSleep subreddit, the genre has made its way to TV screens across the country thanks to a SyFy television series created by Nicholas Acosta that expands on the plot of creepypastas on the internet.

The early days of creepypasta 

Some older and popular creepypastas include Jeff the Killer, a serial killer with no eyelids and a terrifying smile who murders his family; and BEN Drowned, a story by YouTuber Alex Hall that revolves around a haunted cartridge of the video game The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. 

Hall included videos of the ordeal to further enhance the creepypasta.

“I saw that a lot of creepypastas only had one element to them — the writing — and I felt that if it had a visual component as well it would make it that much more engaging,” Hall wrote.

Image: jadusable / alex hall / youtube

BEN Drowned follows the story of a college student who goes the username Jadusable. The character buys a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask from a mysterious old man at a garage sale, that turned out to be haunted by a malevolent spirit named Ben. 

“The genre itself was still pretty young when I wrote it in 2010,” Hall wrote. “I didn’t know what it was at the time. I saw a few creepy video game stories in the wild, and I wanted to try my hand at writing something similar. It just happened to evolve organically from there.”

Image: jadusable / alex hall / youtube

Creepypastas get bigger—and more visual

The infamous Slender Man creature — who was birthed from a creepypasta — helped propel the community into the spotlight with his unnaturally elongated limbs and pale face lacking eyes, mouth, or a nose. Slender Man got so big that he had video games, YouTube web series, and a feature film based on him.

For content creators like Adam Rosner, making YouTube videos based on this figure was a cathartic hobby that eventually grew into a fully fleshed out web series called TribeTwelve. 

“I started making videos back in 2010,” Rosner said. “That type of raw horror was something that really appealed to me. It’s a lot of what creepypasta lore really is.” 

Rosner’s TribeTwelve series was well received by the community. In the series, Rosner plays the role of Noah Maxwell, a college student who is being tormented by a group of evil entities known as The Collective, and of course, Slender Man.

“When I started out I didn’t have a big plan,” Rosner said. “I only wanted to have a few episodes and have a joke ending. But then people started posting in forums about my stuff, and they were really into the plot and visuals of the series.” 

Image: Courtesy of adam rosner

As one of the large figures in the “Slenderverse,” Rosner joined the ranks of other series creators like Marble Hornets and EveryManHYBRID, whose YouTube channels are dedicated to creating Slender Man videos. 

Creepypastas take a dark turn

In 2016, a 12-year-old girl named Katelyn Davis livestreamed her suicide on Live.me. According to a blog post Davis wrote in December 2016, she had fallen in love with the the character Ben from Hall’s creepypasta. 

“I NEED his love. I NEED his warmth. It has been several months since I last spoke with him,” Davis wrote. “He went by Ben Drowned. He claimed that he was the real Ben Drowned. Right now, I don’t care.”

In an interview with Kotaku last year, Hall commented on the event.

“I don’t feel responsible,” Hall said. “I feel like if it wasn’t my story, it would’ve been something else. Someone would have impersonated someone else or whatever, from another story, to lead her down that path or whatnot.”

Davis’ suicide was not the only tragedy surrounding creepypastas. Perhaps the most infamous case  came in the form of an attack by two young girls in order to appease Slender Man.

In 2014, Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser, lured their friend Payton Leutner into the woods in Wisconsin where they stabbed her 19 times and left her to die. All of the girls involved were 12-years-old at the time of the attack.

Multiple reports during the incident highlighted the girls’ obsession with the creepypasta figure as a motive. Because of this, many felt Slender Man and the creepypasta community were guilty by association.

<img class="" data-credit-name="WAUKESHA FREEMAN, CHARLES AUER/ASSOCIATED PRESS
” data-credit-provider=”custom type” data-caption=”One of the two accused attackers in the Slender Man stabbing appearing in a courtroom hearing on Nov. 12, 2014 in Waukesha, Wis.” title=”One of the two accused attackers in the Slender Man stabbing appearing in a courtroom hearing on Nov. 12, 2014 in Waukesha, Wis.” src=”https://i.amz.mshcdn.com/I7-wNb618f0WwC4hpL_bFXewGy0=/fit-in/1200×9600/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F870268%2F3744449b-2872-447a-ae7f-f8803de8393f.jpg&#8221; alt=”One of the two accused attackers in the Slender Man stabbing appearing in a courtroom hearing on Nov. 12, 2014 in Waukesha, Wis.” data-fragment=”m!a310″ data-image=”https://ift.tt/2Q1olnU; data-micro=”1″>

Image: WAUKESHA FREEMAN, CHARLES AUER/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Thankfully, Leutner survived the attack after she dragged herself to a nearby road and was found by a cyclist. She was taken to the hospital to recover from her injuries, and her attackers were tried as adults in a court. Both Weier and Geyser pleaded guilty of attempted homicide. Weier was committed  to 25 years and Geyser was committed to 40 years. Both of the teenagers are serving their sentences in psychiatric institutions. 

“The stabbing was pretty discouraging for a lot of people,” Rosner explained. “It felt like a lot of media outlets were looking for someone to point a finger at, and they just didn’t understand the community at all.”

Considered these two tragic events both involved young children, the community was hit hard. 

Despite setbacks, creepypastas move to TV

Despite the backlash and decline in new stories, Nicholas Acosta saw potential in the genre, and revitalized the dying genre through his television show, Channel Zero. 

“We wanted to honor the genre and give it our own twist,” Acosta said. “The original stories are very short and it’s necessary to bring a lot of stuff into it, so we wanted to give them more life with characters and a larger plot.”

Channel Zero expands on creepypastas by using it as a platform to create an entire universe, characters, and a plot lines based off the original stories. 

The show has been received well by critics and audiences. It’s slated to premiere its fourth season, Dream Door, based on a creepypasta that was posted on the NoSleep subreddit last year. All of the original authors of the creepypastas were credited and paid.

“I have faith in the genre,” Acosta said. “I think as long as people have fears in the modern world, they’re going to continue to read, write, and watch this stuff.”

Will creepypastas continue to thrive?

At the moment, creepypastas are still being produced online, but not nearly at the same rate as they were previously. There also haven’t been any standout creatures recently, such as Ben or Slender Man.

“I haven’t really seen too many newer ones crop up organically,” Hall said. “I think a lot of the really popular ones came out in the first half of the decade and we’re waiting for the next big author out there to put their own spin on the genre.”

Although the written aspect of creepypasta has declined over the past few years, the versatility of the internet has allowed it to retain its spooky value regardless of medium. 

“It has a ridiculous amount of variety,” Rosner said. “The community has so much to offer and I don’t think it’s ever going to go away, it’ll just change forms.”

Whether it’s on TV, in a YouTube video, or written form, you can’t escape a good urban legend or spooky story. As long as there are innovators in the community producing quality creepypasta for the internet, the genre is set to keep us up at night for more years to come.

“I’m excited to see where it goes in the future,” Hall wrote. “I think there’s someone out there with an idea involving multiple mediums that’s going to set the internet on fire and I can’t wait for him or her to realize it.”

Tunis, Tunisia – On Monday afternoon, a suicide bomb blast struck Habib Bourguiba Avenue, one of the most iconic and heavily protected places in the heart of the Tunisian capital, Tunis.

A female attacker reportedly used a hand-made grenade device to target a police van, wounding at least nine people.

This was the first such incident to hit the country since 2015, when the much larger attacks at the Bardo Museum in Tunis and Sousse beach left at least 60 people dead.

Though much more limited in its scope and nature, Monday’s explosion shook Tunisians and served as a reminder that the country’s security threats are far from gone.

“It’s really regrettable,” said Messaoud Romdhani, president of the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights.

“It should make us think why we haven’t got rid of terrorism? Why we’re witnessing such acts of terror?”

The attack came weeks after President Beji Caid Essebsi announced the extension of Tunisia’s state of emergency for one more month, amid growing political tensions ahead of next year’s legislative and presidential elections.

This year, Tunisia has been rocked by months of political turmoil which saw last month the end to the four-year alliance between the secular Nidaa Tounes party and the Islamist party Ennahda.

“This attack is an expected result of the current political situation with the ongoing fierce debate between the ruling parties,” argued Sami Brahem, political scientist and researcher at the government-run Centre for Economic and Social Studies.

“The strategy of terrorism is to capitalise on the tense climate in political life and make its way in.”

Disadvantaged status

In light of the latest violence, Brahem urged all stakeholders – including all ministries – to put differences aside and join forces for the full implementation of the national counter-terrorism strategy.

But in a country struggling with high unemployment and inflation, the focus should not just be on strengthening security but also on improving the socio-economic standards of those living on the margins, added Brahem, referring to the disadvantaged status of the suicide bomber, identified as 30-year-old Mouna Kebla.

Originally from Sidi Alouane, a town in eastern Tunisia, Kebla held a university degree in English but did not have a job. According to local media, she had occasionally worked as a shepherd to help her family.

She had no criminal record, nor was she previously suspected of links to violent ideologies.

“The problem today is not about people who are already implicated in terrorist activities, but those who are potentially exposed to involvement in such actions,” said Brahem.

“If we had to map terrorism in Tunisia, we would find that the regions where [prospective] terrorists come from are the same economically and socially marginalised regions.”

For Romdhani, Monday’s bomb explosion gives politicians a chance to come together and strategise about the country’s direction.

“It’s a political mess right now, there aren’t people who care about the future,” he said. “This event tells us that we should get together in solidarity and change politics to be able to confront terrorism.”

Romdhani stressed that heavy-handed security should not be the focus in that fight.

“We need to reinforce democracy, we also need more social justice, and we need more a type of politics that is concerned about Tunisia’s future and its interest only,” he said.

“We have no other choice, violence is not an option,” he added, urging the civil society to play its part in making people aware of the need to change politics.

Vital sector

The state of emergency, which has been in place since the 2015 attacks, is now very likely to stay in place and be renewed again in the aftermath of Monday’s incident, according to observers.

With improved security, tourists have started to return to the country’s resorts that were abandoned and deserted in the wake of the 2015 attacks, dealing a big blow to the vital tourism sector.

Tunisia hoped it had turned the corner – until Monday’s attack. However, given the small scale of the explosion, concerns about a potential impact on its tourism industry are not as big.

In addition, the makeshift nature of the attack showed that the violent groups in the country had weakened as security forces dismantled several cells and disrupted a number of plots over the past couple of years.

“I think terrorism today does not pose a threat to Tunisians nor tourists in Tunisia,” said Brahem.

Still, Hassine Dimassi, political analyst and former economics professor at Sousse University, said that Monday’s attack made it clear that authorities should not be complacent.

“One lesson to gather is that we need to strengthen the intelligence apparatus,” said Dimassi, encouraging an alert mode from the state.

“Extremists seem to have lost momentum recently, and that’s when they resort to this kind of action to mark their presence taking advantage of a loosening of grip on security forces.”

National governing body Swim England has apologised and removed an article from its website which suggested how women could look slimmer in the pool.

The piece advised that women with a “jiggly belly” should avoid wearing bikinis, and said being pear-shaped has “often been the plague of women”.

The article had been on the website since 2010, but was removed after Simone Webb highlighted some of its content in a thread on Twitter.

A Swim England spokesperson told BBC Sport: “This was an old web page from 2010 that does not represent the views of Swim England. As soon as the article was brought to our attention we removed the page and are in the process of replacing it with more appropriate information.

“Swimming is one of the most accessible activities for people of all ages and abilities. We want everyone to feel comfortable in the water so they can take advantage of the many benefits swimming has to offer.

“We apologise for any offence this old information may have caused and hope this won’t deter people from continuing to enjoy the water.”

The Swim England website has published a new guide.

Snippets from the removed article:

Deadly storms across Italy have brought Venice face-to-face with one of the city’s worst floods in at least a decade — leaving residents, store owners, and tourists alike fending off knee-high flood water. 

New photos of the flooding show tourists and residents in boots trudging through the ancient city.

But flooding in Venice is nothing new. 

A few times during winter, strong winds push water from the Adriatic Sea into the Venetian Lagoon, causing high tides and minor but widespread flooding across the ancient island.

However, every so often, the floods surpass normal levels and become a major hazard to everyone on the island and officials will sound sirens to warn the island that something more serious is coming.

This week, the flood sirens rang loud from one of the 15 designated bell towers within the city. 

Officials estimate that the Venetian Lagoon has risen 160 cm (5 feet 3 inches), making it the worst flood since 1979, and leaving nearly 80 percent of the city under water.

Some of the parts of the the city most severely affected by the floods are the historic Piazza San Marco and Rialto Bridge which include structures that are centuries old.

Floods like this used to be few and far between.

But now major floods happen around once every four years, and scientists think that human-caused climate change is at least in part to blame. 

Plus, it doesn’t help that the petrified logs holding the city afloat are sinking. Venice has reportedly sunk 6 feet since the city’s medieval heyday.  

In order to avert continuous catastrophe, back in 2003 the Italian government began working on Project Mose — Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico — to help curb the effects of sea level rise on Venice. 

The idea was to create three barriers to blockade the flow of water from the Adriatic into the Venetian Lagoon. The barriers would shut when scientists expected the highest tides.

So far, two of the three have been completed, with a third one approaching completion in the coming years.

The project should be finished within the next two or three years. 

In the meantime, Venice has other mechanisms in place to defend against the floods.

Drains are in every city square. Lifted walkways are put in place. 

Homes and storefronts, especially those facing the lagoon, have 1 foot barriers on their front doors, or their doors are lifted off the ground entirely. 

The 5 foot tide is expected to lessen throughout the rest of the week so hopefully Venice will have time to recover before it has to sound the flood alarms again. 

This article is the second of a two-part series on Gaza’s water crisis. The first, which examines Gaza’s water and health catastrophe, was published on Monday, October 29.

Gaza – When it comes to survival in Gaza, safe, clean drinking water is not at the top of Mousa Hillah’s list of priorities. 

Since the 2014 war, Hillah, known to neighbours and family as Abu Ali, has had far bigger worries, which are etched deeply into the exhausted face of the 48-year-old grandfather.

Dodging shell fire from Israeli tanks, he fled with his family from the destruction of his Shuja’iyya neighbourhood, flattened by Israel in an attack so devastating – 7,000 shells in barely an hour – that it astonished even US military officials. (“Holy bejeezus!” one retired general exclaimed.)

The family took refuge for months in an in-law’s house near the sea, along with 50 other people. When they returned, Abu Ali found his home – the one he had built after 30 years of working construction in Israel – utterly destroyed.

Brick by board, he rebuilt it, adorning his front entrance, in a dose of biting irony, with repurposed tank shells.

And now, as he sits in the filtered morning light beneath a lattice of grape leaves, he worries less about potable water than the Israeli drone buzzing overhead – often the harbinger of another attack.

God forbid if the military on either side, Israel or Egypt, starts shooting people approaching the fence, desperate for clean water.

Gidon Bromberg, director of Ecopeace Middle East, based in Tel Aviv

“I want to sleep well,” Abu Ali says, as his family takes refuge inside the rebuilt house. “I don’t feel safe in my home.”

So the brackish, undrinkable water that sputters from his tap, or the sweet water with possible faecal contamination in his rooftop tank: these are issues Abu Ali files under the category of extreme nuisance. 

This very morning, for example, the electricity came on only from 6:30 to 8:30.

It shut off before the water delivery truck arrived – “too late to pump the water to the roof,” Abu Ali complains.

A shortage of drinking water is a major concern, but clearly, worrying about the buzzing drone takes priority. 

Gaza’s water catastrophe

Yet if the Gaza Strip truly becomes “uninhabitable” by 2020, as the UN and humanitarian groups warn, it will be largely because of the utter collapse of the system for delivering safe drinking water and properly disposing of disease-causing sewage.

Because of Gaza’s water and sewage catastrophe, medical experts are now seeing sharp increases in waterborne and foodborne diseases, including gastroenteritis, severe diarrhoea, salmonella, typhoid fever, an “alarming magnitude” of stunting in young children, and even something called “blue baby syndrome.”

Independent, peer-reviewed medical studies also document an alarming rise in anaemia and infant mortality. And doctors in Gaza’s hospitals now report increased cases of paediatric cancer.

For years these torments seemed sealed off from the outside world by layers of fences, locked gates, patrolling Israeli drones and warplanes, and international disdain and indifference.

Now, finally, from Washington to European capitals, and even to the Israeli security infrastructure in Tel Aviv, alarm bells are going off, warning that something must be done to prevent the water catastrophe in Gaza from spinning out of control. 

“If you really want to change the lives of people, you have to solve the water issue first,” says Adnan Abu Hasna, Gaza spokesperson for the UN Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA.

How did the water crisis begin?

The crisis essentially began with the creation of Israel in 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were driven from their towns and villages and the population of Gaza quadrupled in a matter of weeks.

Now, three-quarters of Gaza’s two million people are refugees. Their descendants put immense pressure on Gaza’s aquifer, drawing it down so far that seawater is flowing in. 

What is increasing the pressure on the aquifer are the billions of gallons pumped by Gaza’s now debilitated citrus industry, and the billions more by Gaza’s Israeli settlers, who helped drain a sweet pocket of Gaza water before Israel removed them in 2005. 

Now, barely three percent of Gaza’s drinking water wells are fit for human consumption.

The aquifer is badly contaminated with disease-causing nitrates from pesticide use, and from sewage which flows freely as Gaza’s sewage plant is shut down for lack of electricity.

And the desalinated drinking water used by two-thirds of Gazans, according to tests by the Palestinian Water Authority, is prone to faecal contamination, causing more disease and making it a severe risk for Gaza’s children.

Israel’s bombing of water delivery infrastructure – including wells, water towers and pipelines, and sewage plants – in the 2014 war, made matters much worse.

A comprehensive peace deal, in theory, could have eliminated the challenges by connecting Gaza to the West Bank, where the vast Mountain Aquifer is big enough to drown Gaza’s water crisis.

As it is, there is no peace. The two territories are splintered, and Israel has effective control over all of the water – from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean.

As a health epidemic looms, experts, politicians, humanitarian officials and ordinary Gazans are left to debate the best way out of Gaza’s water catastrophe.

‘Stolen by the Israelis’

“We have 15 percent of our water resources, and the rest is stolen by the Israelis,” says Mazen Al Banna, deputy minister for the Hamas government’s water authority.

As he speaks, the wail of an ambulance and a slow mournful dirge pass by the minister’s Gaza City office – a memorial for three Gazans killed in Israeli air attacks the previous day.

Decades ago, Israel captured the Jordan River, directing much of its flow into Israel’s National Water Carrier.

Equally important, it controls the Mountain Aquifer, exercising its power under the Oslo accords to prohibit Palestinians from drilling wells – even though the aquifer lies almost entirely beneath the West Bank.

“And this is against international law,” says Al Banna. “I’m talking about Palestinian water rights. It is very important.”

Yet arguing for Palestinian water rights is akin to debating the right of return for Palestinian refugees. It may be inscribed in international law, but it remains a distant and faltering prospect within the current political reality.

Instead, Hamas ministers and everyone else in Gaza must contend with Israel’s ongoing economic siege, which has restricted the movement of basic goods, including medical supplies and crucial parts for water infrastructure.

“Occupation and siege are the primary impediments to the successful promotion of public health in the Gaza Strip,” declared a 2018 study in the Lancet, which cited “significant and deleterious effects to health care.”

According to a 2017 report by the Israeli human rights group B’tselem: “During the siege, the health system has further deteriorated due to the lack of medical equipment, medicines, and rescue vehicles, and because of the frequent, prolonged power blackouts.”

The Israeli siege sharply restricts the movement of people and materials to and from Gaza – including “dual-use” materials it claims could serve both civilian and military purposes.

This is a direct reason why nearly half the population is unemployed, and an increasing number of Gazans – now more than three-quarters of the population – are dependent on humanitarian aid. 

The blockade has also delayed the entry of vital water infrastructure – in some cases, for years at a time.

A proposed desalination plant for Gaza City, for example – one of a series of proposed plants – has been delayed since 2010 because of dual-use restrictions. 

“Eight years,” says Yasmin Bashir, project coordinator for Gaza’s Coastal Municipal Water Utility. “We got the funding in 2012. This plant is supposed to serve the people who are suffering from bad quality, high salinity water.”

For years Bashir continued to submit “a long list” of material for Israeli approval, including pipes, pumps, and spare parts for the desalination plant.

“But because of the blockade and frequent closure, that delayed the material entry into Gaza.”

And that is just one project.

“We manage more than 25 projects nowadays,” Bashir added.

Now, even voices within Israel’s military and security infrastructure are sounding warnings. 

According to a 2017 report by Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, “severe limits on access and movement imposed by Israel and Egypt have hindered post-conflict repair and reconstruction.” 

Israel’s long list of dual-use items, according to the report, “includes 23 essential items” needed for Gaza’s WASH sector (water, sewage and hygiene), “such as pumps, drilling equipment, and chemicals for water purification.”

Is desalination the solution?

A consensus is now emerging between the Palestinian Authority, the UN, international donors, and even, it appears, the Israeli army, to establish a network of large desalination and sewage plants.

This solution carries an, at least, 500 million euro price tag, and is years away from operation, at best – if it’s ever built.

“Of course Gaza needs this project,” says Rebhi al Sheikh, former deputy minister for the Ramallah-based Palestinian Water Authority. 

Others criticise the large, expensive development solution as inappropriate technology for an impoverished population that would struggle to afford desalinated water. 

“The fantastic plans,” says Ramallah-based German hydrologist Clemens Messerschmid, fail to account for the fact that “Gaza can’t afford it. You just start crying if you look at the GDP.”

He argues that outside contractors, including in Israel, would be the biggest beneficiaries of the desalination scheme.

Perhaps more to the point, says Messerschmid, the amount of water to be produced by the plant won’t ultimately meet Gaza’s needs. 

“You don’t reach these quantities under realistic conditions in Gaza.”

Yet the desalination plan appears to be gaining momentum. 

The PA’s concerns about Gaza’s water crisis are joined by humanitarian agencies, foreign governments, and even, it appears, an emergency response committee of the Israeli army. 

In a Gaza Emergency Response document circulated to unnamed “Friends and Colleagues,” the Israeli army calls for “an immediate humanitarian response” to “enhance the energy supply” and “increase the access to potable water” in Gaza.

Despite the desalination push, a pilot plant in southern Gaza barely operates.

A midday visit in late summer revealed a quiet plant; birds were chirping in the rafters above the idle plant floor: no power.

“We don’t have more than four hours these days,” said plant manager Kamal Abu Moamar. “But we hope.” 

He is waiting for his superiors, PA ministers to solve the problem. “But we don’t know how or when.”

Even if the plants are built, there’s no guarantee they would remain standing. Some officials question whether Israel would decide to bomb the desalination plants in the next Gaza war, just as it bombed Gaza’s power plant and other critical infrastructure in previous wars. 

“Nobody can tell Israel that you are doing the wrong thing,” says Hamas’s Al Banna. “Israel is doing everything against international law but nobody can prevent Israel doing everything she wants to do.”

In the “Emergency Response” document, the Israel army endorses the Gaza desalination plan, but so far has offered no guarantees it wouldn’t target these plants in the next war. 

Al Jazeera contacted an Israeli army spokesman a dozen times, but did not receive a response by time the of publishing.

So the question came to Gregor von Medeazza, a UNICEF water and sanitation expert working in Gaza: Under the circumstances, is investing hundreds of millions in donor funds wasn’t too big a risk?

“Any infrastructure is a risk” he said, “[But] what is the way forward?”

Beyond Gaza’s borders 

Other risks abound, both with Gaza’s water and its sewage, which flows into the sea at a rate of 110 million litres a day.

These risks flow well beyond Gaza’s borders, flowing north in the currents.

Gidon Bromberg, director of Ecopeace Middle East, based in Tel Aviv, said Gaza sewage led to the closure of Israeli beaches, and even at one point the shutdown of the desalination plant in Ashkelon, which supplies Israel with 15 percent of its drinking water. 

Bromberg says Israelis cannot continue to ignore the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.

He called it “a ticking time bomb”, and warned of an outbreak of pandemic disease – a direct consequence of Gaza’s contaminated water.

If that happens, Bromberg says, Gazans could flock to the fence on Israel’s border – not “with stones or rockets,” but “with buckets”, demanding clean water.

“God forbid if the military on either side, Israel or Egypt, starts shooting people approaching the fence, desperate for clean water.”