Sewage wave hits Gaza village, kills four

An earthen embankment around a cesspool suddenly collapsed yesterday, spewing a river of sewage and mud that killed four people and forced residents to flee from their village in the northern Gaza Strip, officials said.

A local official blamed shoddy infrastructure in Umm Naser, a town of 3,000, for the disaster.

A 70-year-old woman, two small children and a teenager died in the sudden flood, and 25 people were injured, Muawiya Hassanin of the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Many of the village's houses were submerged or seriously damaged.

Fadel Kawash, head of the Palestinian Water Authority, said that the level of sewage in the pool had increased over the past few days, creeping up the earthen embankments around the pool until one collapsed, "causing the sewage to pour toward the village."

The village council head, described the scene as "our tsunami."

Rescue crews and gunmen from Hamas rushed to the area to search for people feared buried under the slide of sewage and mud. Most residents fled or were evacuated. Three children left on a cart pulled by a donkey, heading toward the nearby town of Beit Lahiya.

Angry residents drove reporters out of the area and mobbed government officials who arrived at the scene. When Interior Minister Hani Kawasmeh arrived to survey the damage, his bodyguards fired into the air to disperse the crowd. Initial reports that Kawasmeh had been shot at were apparently incorrect.