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GAZA - A sewage reservoir burst next to a village in the northern Gaza Strip today, killing at least four people and injuring 20 in a torrent of putrid water and waste that buried their homes, officials said.
Two children, aged one and two, were among the dead in Gaza's small Bedouin Village when the sewage overflowed in what one resident called a man-made tsunami.
At least 25 makeshift homes were destroyed or completely buried. As many as 96 were damaged.
"Has anybody seen my child?" stunned resident Abdel-Salam Abu Atiq pleaded. "This is a disaster. Who is responsible?"
It was not immediately clear what caused the sewage to erupt from the reservoir, but local residents blamed the municipal government for failing to address the mounting sewage problem.
Aid officials said the capacity of the wastewater plant had been stretched to breaking point. The narrow coastal strip is home to 1.5 million Palestinians and the plant served two densely populated areas, Beit Lahiya and Jabalya.
Local authorities have scant resources. Since the Islamic militant group Hamas came to power a year ago, Western donors have halted direct assistance to the Palestinian government and Israel has frozen most tax revenues.
Hamas said the cut-off in international aid "prevented the government from improving and developing the necessary health and humanitarian services".
An internal World Bank document, obtained by Reuters, said the plant and reservoir were built on high ground, putting the "surrounding area under an imminent threat of possible flooding".
The governor of north Gaza, Ismail Abu Shammala, said the problems started 15 to 20 years ago while Gaza was under direct Israeli occupation.
He said Israeli military operations since the pullout in 2005 and internal Palestinian violence over the last year made it harder to make improvements.
Palestinian Interior Minister Hani al-Qawasmi, who rushed to the village to survey the damage, was confronted by angry gunmen who fired shots in the air, local witnesses said. Qawasmi was whisked to safety in a police car.
A spokesman for the minister said he had ordered an investigation into what caused the wave of sewage.
Hundreds of civilians and members of rival Palestinian security forces took part in the rescue effort.
An Israeli Defence Ministry spokeswoman said the army was ordered to provide assistance to Palestinians "as may be required".
When the reservoir overflowed, the sewage burst through fencing near the village of tin huts and Bedouin tents, witnesses said.
"It was a flood, waves like mountains," said Um Mahmoud Sayyah, a bedouin. She said she lost everything, including her 24 goats.
Seventeen-year-old Essam Zghaibi said panicked villagers started screaming and running in every direction.
Hundreds of school children escaped unharmed because their school was on higher ground.
- REUTERS
