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Press TV has conducted an interview with Hani al-Bassos, from the Islamic University of Gaza, about an environmentalist organization saying Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are facing a deepening water crisis as Israel maintains its crippling siege on the impoverished coastal enclave.

- Hani al-Bassos, perhaps it is something that does not get covered by mainstream media but this is a very alarming situation.

Let’s first break down the shortage of water that Palestinians are facing combined with obviously the waterborne diseases that they are now experiencing with the sewage crisis and how at the opposite side of the spectrum you have Israelis who have water enough, I think it is more than perhaps thirty or forty times the average among the Gazans, average Gazans have in the Gaza Strip?

- Well the fact the situation in Gaza has been worsened by the siege, the blockade has been tightened by the Israel occupation for the past six months, it is much more than it used to be in the past.

This affects the life in general and affects the water in the Gaza Strip in which has been shortage in water and there has been a crisis in the sewage in which the authorities in the Gaza Strip will not be able to deal with such a situation. I think the blockade is affecting everything and we look at the water, the needs of human being in the Gaza Strip is being deteriorating by the situation in which the water is not enough, it is not drinkable.

The occupation forces used their best in the past and even nowadays not to let enough water in the Gaza Strip. We talk about the enclave, the Gaza Strip which is a small narrow place and which 1.8 million Palestinian people are living. The necessity of having drinkable water is high. At the same time we look at the water, it is not pure, it is not clean and it is not enough for the people.

So this would affect the health of those people especially children and old people who have been in a dire situation and this situation is increasingly being bad and would affect the general status of a humanitarian situation and when we talk about the sewage, the Palestinian authority in the Gaza Strip is not able to deal with this sewage in which this increasing number of population do not have the basic infrastructure in which the sewage sometimes is mixed with water and when we look at such a situation from political point of view, we find the occupation and the blockade from the Egyptian side and from the Israeli side have made the basis for such a blockade to affect the Palestinian people.

The humanitarian situation is as bad as we can think and we do not find any kind of solution. The authorities in Gaza are not able to deal with such a crisis and I think if the situation continues like this, people in Gaza will face health problems, diseases and will not be able to have water.

And what we have nowadays the water it is not clean as I said but we can buy the water, it is mineral water and it is not even mineral water. It is kind of water which goes into the process of desalination and purification by some companies and people buying it. So looking at such a thing, I think it is really a bad situation. Water is the basis for life and people in Gaza do not have such basis, do not have such water.

They are not calling for much to be done in Gaza. People are looking at the basic needs, at the basic necessity which is having pure water, clean water and having a system for the sewage in which the sewage have been badly made by the Israeli occupation, by the Israeli wars in Gaza in 2012.

- Well that is the humanitarian side of this story. Hani al-Bassos, let’s look at the political side of this story.

You know when the government of Hamas was democratically elected back in 2006, many are blaming them for the situation that is being experienced by Gazans but what is not being said is the act that they were never allowed to actually rule because the siege took effect pretty much after they took over power. So this has become politicized.

Is Israel trying to, along with some of its partners like the United States perhaps, trying to suffocate the people to the point where they go against the government of Hamas out of desperation because obviously there is a political push here which as a consequence the people of Gaza are suffering?

- Well this is the fact. Yes, the blockade which has been imposed in Gaza in 2006 and it still continues has been tightened for the past six months especially after the political situation has changed in Egypt.

But I imagine that the occupation forces have been trying their best to push the Palestinian society in Gaza to revolt against Hamas government and this is not happening at all because people believe in their freedom, dignity and they would like to fight the occupation.

The occupation forces did their best in 2008, 2012 by launching two wars on Gaza Strip killing many people and they want to suffocate the economic situation and they want to stifle the people to the point in which they are trying to push 1.8 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip against Hamas government and this is happening step by step by the Israeli army, increasing pressure on the people and on Hamas but I think people understand the fact that everything [that] is happening is politicized.

Everything [that] is happening in terms of humanitarian situation and economic situation is being done by plan which is made by the Israeli government and its partner the United States against the people of the Gaza Strip because they do not want the government in Gaza which fights the occupation.

So this is an attempt by the occupation to push the people to the corner, to push them hard in order to revolt against the government in Gaza.