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Source: http://blog.camera.org/archives/2007/11/sand_and_the_cesspool.html
Sand and the Cesspool
[CAMERA] In the New York Times, Steven Erlanger reports that Gaza faces another sewage disaster similar to the one last March in Um Al Nasser, in which five people died. He quotes an Israeli official, Shlomo Dror, as saying that the lagoon broke last March because "people were stealing the sand." As the Age (Australia) reported last spring: "Gaza City Mayor Majid Abu Ramadan... accused local residents of stealing the sand and selling it to building companies for 300 shekels a truckload." The Palestinian Jerusalem Times reported on Gaza municipality health warnings about sand thieves back on June 18, 2004: "The Municipality of Gaza recently warned local, international and environmental media from the expected collapse and destruction of...the sewage treatment water tank [that] will convert Gaza province into a catastrophic area....The municipality's representatives said that some vandals were able to remove the sand surrounding these huge establishments for commercial use." Erlanger reports in great detail about the shortage of steel pipes due to Israeli restrictions, minimizing Israeli security concerns about their use in making rockets. But as the Jerusalem Post reported last spring: "On February 9, the Shin Bet arrested Amar Azk, 37 [a metal merchant in Gaza]. During his interrogation, he confessed selling the pipes to Hamas and other terrorist organizations that manufactured Kassam rockets, fired almost daily at Israel....The pipes that were sold to Zak were intended for the construction of a sewage system in Gaza."