Israel fired 55 warning shots at Gaza fishing boats that sailed too close to the perimeter fence in March, according to a report published Tuesday by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Tuesday.
That provided a snapshot of the situation in Gaza in March, just prior to this month’s violent crisis between Israel and Hamas, in which over 40 rockets were launched at Israel.
In contrast, according to OCHA, in March only one rocket was launched at Israel that was followed by a retaliatory Israeli strike.
Most of the altercations, it explained, occurred at sea, where two fisherman were injured from warning shots and their boats were damaged.
It was the lowest number of such incidents in four months, with 84 waning shots fired in January, 75 in December and 58 in February. In November of last year, there were only 34 such incidents.
“On March 7, an explosion occurred in a Palestinian boat off the coast of Khan Younis, resulting in the death of three fishermen, two brothers and a cousin, in circumstance[s] that remain unclear,” OCHA said.
Israel on Monday morning closed the Gaza fishing zone in response to the Gaza rocket fire and has not reopened it.
With regard to conditions on the ground in Gaza in March, OCHA noted that the average supply of electricity had increased from 13 to 14 hours a day.
Water supplies were still low, OCHA said, as it referenced by a Palestinian Authority water survey which showed that only 4% of Gaza households have access to safe water.
“More than 97% of the water pumped from the coastal aquifer in Gaza does not meet the World Health Organization’s water quality standards,” OCHA said.
It reported that in March there was a 17% “decline in the volume of desalinated water produced by Gaza’s public water utility,” which produced 6,824 cu.m. per day compared to 8,204 in February.
OCHA also noted that “pollution levels of wastewater discharged into the sea significantly declined in March to 80 mg. per liter, the lowest recorded in years, due to an improvement in the operational capacity of two wastewater treatment plants.”