Two international aid organizations claim that Gaza’s water is unfit to drink. But instead of blaming the Hamas terrorist rulers who have maintained a choke hold on the region since June 2007, the groups claim Israel is responsible for the contamination.

The “Save the Children” foundation and “Medical Aid for Palestinians” charity insist that Israel’s blockade of Gaza prevents “crucial sanitation equipment from getting in,” the BBC reported Thursday. “The blockade must be lifted ‘in its entirety,’” wrote the BBC, quoting a report by the charities, “Gaza’s Children: Falling Behind.”

The British-based website also noted in a single line that the report mentioned that “war damage and chronic underinvestment” were also to blame. Israel’s three-week Operation Cast Lead was carried out against Hamas in the winter of 2008-2009 in order to silence the incessant deadly rocket and mortar attacks being fired at southern Israeli communities from Gaza.

The groups reported the number of children in Gaza treated for diarrhea in the past five years has doubled, and blamed high levels of nitrates and other chemicals in the main water supply. Nitrates are found in fertilizer and feces, both of which are present in water when sewage is not properly processed.

The report referred to the Gaza sewage system as “completely broken” and urged the international community, other donors and the Palestinian Authority to do “more.”

A recent report from the CoGAT, however, raises the question of whether the blame shouldn’t simply be placed squarely at the doorstep of the very government that was voted into power in the PA elections of 2006: that of the Hamas terrorists who now rule Gaza.

In the third quarter of last year, figures released by the IDF Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories (CoGAT) noted that exports from Gaza were up by 30 percent over the same period a year earlier, making it clear the region had seen a whopping economic improvement.

At least 27 projects were in place to deal with water and sewage purification, according to the CoGAT report. Also approved for construction were 18 greenhouses and cold storage rooms for fruit and vegetables, as well as rehabilitation of soil and water sources – all of which address the issue of contamination.

None of these projects are being funded by Hamas, which collects lavish “taxes” from the smugglers who bring in luxury goods through the hundreds of tunnels that honeycomb the border between Gaza and Egypt. Nor are they being funded by the PA government based in its capital in Ramallah, which ensures that Arab terrorists incarcerated in Israeli prisons receive generous monthly stipends, and Gaza’s Hamas government workers receive their monthly salaries.

For years, Hamas has chosen to invest its own funds in weaponry to fire at Israel and ordnance with which to murder Israeli civilians. Monies and materials intended for building local infrastructure were diverted to the terrorist group’s self-declared eternal war against the State of Israel – hence Israel’s effort to prevent the “import” of terrorist equipment to Gaza. Hamas has even held out against its own people on fuel for the region. This past winter, the terrorist organization allowed Gazans to freeze, rather than cooperate with Egypt on legitimate purchases on natural gas.

View original Arutz Sheva publication at:  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/156878#.T9nay7Uhrrc