GAZA WOMAN RETURNS TO DAMAGED SWIMMING POOL AFTER CEASEFIRE

In Deir Al Balah, Gaza, Ghada Abdulfattah returned to swim at a local pool nearly three years after Israel's invasion began on 7 October 2023, according to her own account. She said the pool's once-turquoise water had turned cloudy and opaque, with dead insects on the surface. She described hesitating at the edge before getting in, saying she had waited a long time for this. A ceasefire took hold in Gaza last October, she said, but much of ordinary life, including cafes, gyms, restaurants and hotels, remained destroyed or unreachable.

Abdulfattah said she spent months searching for somewhere to resume swimming, a hobby from before the war, before finding an advert for the pool on social media. She said the form asked for her name, identification and phone number, and she hesitated over concerns that the Israeli government collects data through decoy adverts. She said people in Gaza have learned to act cautiously as a result. After calling the organisers and waiting weeks, she received a text message saying her class, at what she called Gaza's only functioning pool, was about to begin.

According to Abdulfattah, the pool's owners cannot afford the $1,000 needed to treat the water or the $700 required to refill it, making clean water what she called a luxury. She said this did not stop her attending her class. Her account coincided with the third anniversary of the 7 October 2023 attack that triggered the war, marked in Israel with tributes, further strikes on Gaza and political debate, according to another report. That report said the anniversary was expected to feature prominently in the election campaign.