At least two Palestinians were killed and several others injured.
At the height of the protests and shootings on the border of the Gaza Strip earlier this year, when Israeli forces killed more than 100 Palestinian protesters and left thousands of others injured, a senior member of the Israeli army wrote a letter to the head of the World Health Organization (WHO).
A perpetual crisis In July 2017 the UN published a detailed report on Gaza and its environment.
"On the ground, life for the average Palestinian in Gaza is getting more and more wretched," said the report.
The report projected that water resources in the aquifer will be completely exhausted by the end of 2018.
According to the UN, in 2017 blackouts for the majority of householders in the territory were lasting up to 20 hours a day.
Sewage discharged into the sea is moved northwards by winds and currents.
Last year a desalination plant in the south of the Gaza Strip became operational, supplying 75,000 people in Khan Younis and Rafah with drinking water.
After more than 10 years of delays caused by war and the blockade, the North Gaza Emergency Sewage Treatment plant, which will cater for the sanitation needs of more than 400,000 people, finally started preliminary operations earlier this year.
The US$75m project, funded by the World Bank, the EU and a number of other donor countries, still faces considerable difficulties, particularly over its power supply.