In Gaza, Israel has turned water into a weapon of mass destruction
Denying water to Gaza has been a key tactic of the war from the very beginning, with Israel shutting off the pipes supplying the enclave on October 7. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced that Israel was “imposing a complete siege on Gaza. No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly.”
At the end of October, an internal U.S. State Department report expressed concern that 52,000 pregnant women and over 30,000 babies under the age of six months were being forced to drink a potentially lethal mix of water polluted with sewage and salt from the sea. Since then, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been severely weakened by rampant hunger and disease, as well as the physical wounds inflicted on nearly 60,000 people and the mental stress of ceaseless bombardment that has taken more than 23,500 lives. All of this renders Palestinians in Gaza even more vulnerable to water-borne illnesses.
By the end of December, as WHO reported, the more than 1 million displaced Palestinians sheltering in the southern city of Rafah had access to, on average, one toilet for every 486 people, while across Gaza one shower served an average of 4,500 people. Sewage flows through the streets and contaminates the hastily erected tents in which hundreds of thousands of people now live throughout southern and central Gaza. Those who are menstruating face intense hardship, with menstrual products, toilets, and water all in direly short supply.
Look this is just an aside but I want to suggest a blanket moratorium on the use of the following language:
"Something-gate"
If the thing did not occur at the Watergate hotel, or is actually not a gate, please refrain.
"Slam/ Slams/ Slamed"
Unless something or someone actually hit the ground with a thunk, retweeting Ted Cruz to all the people who already agree with you is not 'slamming' any one. See here for an example of some one getting slammed.
"something is now a weapon of mass destruction"
Look we've had enough issues around the use of this term incorrectly. Is what Israel doing a war-crime? Yes. Is it a genocide? Yes. Is it a weapon of mass destruction? No. No it is not. Thats the bombs they are dropping. Its those. Those are the weapons of mass destruction.
The laziness of journalists is just sometimes.. shocking.
Would you say you want to fustigate any editor or surrogate who treats the -gate suffix as obligate as they congregate to promulgate articles that castigate and instigate when they should mitigate or even derogate their profligate use of -gate?
Ok smartass you got me. I thought you were having an "Iamverysmart" moment until I tried to investigate and parse what you said. Turns out I'm the moron. Well done.
But that's not -gate, it's -ate attached to Latin roots that already ended in g.
It was a joke, ingrate.
Generally, it's not the journalist deciding the headline. Usually it's some stripe of editor
I agree, but must say I'm pretty disappointed that you didn't use the time a GOP candidate literally body slammed a reporter and STILL got elected as your example of someone actually getting slammed..
Lords I'd forgotten about that.
Says a lot about the political climate that not only were you able to ever forget about something so bizarre, but it's actually completely understandable!
Was this the also the guy who challenged someone to a fist fight on the floor of the House?
Nah, that was SENATOR Mullin on the senate floor having to be talked down by Bernie
Thanks for derailing the whole thread with this stupid ass pedantry.
This. So tired of having a discussion and some wise ass comes in and says oh I cant stand headlines with this word. So? Why share with the class? It adds nothing to the discussion besides letting the person stamp their feet in indignation while at the same time adding nothing of any value whatsoever. Congratulations. You shared an opinion that offers nothing but smug self glorification.
But this isn't a real life discussion with limited space or bandwidth. It's a forum with potentially infinite comments, and you can scroll as quickly as you want
Your comment is doing the same (and so is mine).
Why complain, just scroll past?