UAE helps Gaza: Parched Palestinians grateful for clean water that tastes 'like sugar'

For Gaza resident Zaki Abu Sleyma, the water now flowing into the devastated enclave from a desalination project in Egypt tastes "like sugar" after weeks of Israel's bombardment and siege left him and many others drinking unclean, brackish water.

The water comes from three plants built by the UAE on the Egyptian side of the border and pumped into Rafah that started working on Tuesday, part of an effort to relieve one of the biggest humanitarian challenges in Gaza.

"We were really suffering... we used to bring water from the sea before. This water tastes like sugar, it is drinkable," Abu Sleyman said.

Stay up to date with the latest news. Follow KT on WhatsApp Channels.

But while clean water is badly wanted, Gaza's ruined infrastructure means it is hard to distribute beyond the border town of Rafah, let alone pump up to rooftop tanks that allow people to use it in the enclave's remaining buildings.

Israel cut off all external electricity supply to Gaza when the war began on October 7 with a Hamas raid into Israeli towns that killed 1,200 people. Its siege of the Palestinian territory has also stopped most fuel supplies, meaning local power generators do not work either.

"We hope they can provide us with an electricity station... as you can see we fill the buckets and take the water upstairs," said Abu Sleyma. Filling upstairs tanks so that water can be used in taps in the house is hard, painful work.

Even in Rafah, where the Israeli army has told civilians to seek refuge, the dearth of food and clean water is so severe it is causing people to lose weight and get ill.

• Gaza war: UAE delivers food parcels to over 34,000 displaced Palestinians