A press release announcing the suspension of field work after three employees of the Utility and municipalities were martyred, demanding protection for the crews.
Press Release
CMWU Announces the Suspension of Field Work and Calls on International Institutions to Provide Protection for Its Crews
The working crews at CMWU and the municipalities have been targeted more than once since the escalation the Gaza Strip has witnessed amid the continuation of the Israeli military attacks, and the work team of CMWU and Al-Bureij Municipality was targeted by the Israeli army, leading to the martyrdom of colleague Ziad Al-Shawi, colleague Shahraman Abu Al-Kass, and colleague Mazen Aslan, with two workers targeted at about 11:05 PM on Saturday night, Sunday, 12/7/2014, by an Israeli shell, directly, while carrying out field work in coordination with the electricity company's team in Rafah, leading to the martyrdom of one of them, colleague Ziad Al-Shawi, on 14/7/2014, succumbing to his wounds.
Accordingly, CMWU denounces the targeting of its crews in this manner and its escalation, and affirms its full commitment to continuing to carry out all its vital duties towards the public and provide water and sanitation services to the fullest extent possible, which is what it has done and continues to do through the network of wells, pumping stations, and treatment plants, and out of concern for protecting the lives of its crew members, it announces that it is forced to suspend all its external field work related to water and sanitation facilities in all areas of the Gaza Strip until appropriate field protection is provided for the Utility's crews.
Accordingly, the Utility calls on international institutions related to humanitarian work, particularly the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, to bear their responsibilities and move to protect CMWU's crews and exert appropriate pressure on the Israeli side to stop targeting the municipalities' and CMWU's work crews.
This is to avoid the risk of the Utility's and municipalities' work stopping, which would expose Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to health and environmental disasters, and the Utility also calls on the concerned institutions to exert maximum possible pressure on the Israeli side to ensure the safety of the work crews and enable them to carry out their humanitarian duty amid these extremely harsh and complex circumstances, to spare residents further humanitarian suffering and spare public health and environmental health further disasters.
