Gaza Sewage Tsunami

Ten years ago, Rabbi Baruch Shapira, zs'l, said "There will come a day when settlements in Gaza area will be evacuated and handed over to the enemy. After the Jews will leave, Hakadosh-Baruch-Hu will shake the sea and will make an earthquake in the sea near Gaza, and will come a very great wave that will wash the whole area that will become islands. Immediately afterwards the Jews will return to the area, and this is a great miracle that will happen...."

Fast forward 10 years, 8 Nisan, 5767

UMM NASER VILLAGE, Gaza Strip: Palestinian officials said at least six people were killed, and hundred residents are still missing Tuesday when the wall of a large cesspool wall collapsed, flooding Umm Naser with mud and sewage. According to rescue workers, raw sewage erupted from ground-level treatment pools, and swept through the village, knocking down many homes.

A 70-year-old woman, two small children and a teenager died in the sudden flood, and 25 people were injured.

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 earth embankments around the pool until one collapsed, "causing the sewage to pour toward the village."

Amina Afif, 65, said her shack in the village had been destroyed. "We lost everything, everything was covered by the flood. It's a disaster," Afif said.

Rescue crews and gunmen from the militant Muslim group 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.

Ziad Abu Farieh, the village council head, described the scene of the incident as “our own tsunami.”