How Israel is using thirst as a weapon against Palestinians in Gaza

The engineered water crisis is part of Israel’s “policy of systematic and calculated deprivation” as the genocidal Jewish state attempts to make Gaza unliveable.

Genocide survivors in Gaza are “facing an unprecedented water crisis that threatens their lives and undermines their human dignity,” with “approximately 85 percent of the population deprived of regular access to clean water” due to Israel’s destruction of “water wells, desalination plants, transmission pipelines, distribution networks, water reservoirs, and pumping stations” since the start of its genocidal assault on the besieged enclave in October 2023, according to a new report.

The continued Israeli siege on the enclave, despite the ceasefire that came into effect last October, has exacerbated the situation for the survivors of the Western-backed genocidal Israeli assault. “The crisis is driven by Israeli restrictions on the entry of fuel, equipment, and maintenance materials needed to rehabilitate and operate water facilities, as well as by the catastrophic consequences of the Israeli offensive,” the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reported on Monday.

This has caused unprecedented suffering for Palestinians in accessing potable water, making its procurement a daily struggle for families:

The ongoing siege and widespread destruction have severely undermined the capacity of local service providers to produce, transport, and distribute water, disrupting its regular delivery to the population, particularly in areas overcrowded with displaced people. As a result, access to sufficient and safe water has become an exhausting daily struggle for Palestinians in Gaza, forcing them to travel long distances and wait for hours to obtain only limited quantities of water that fall far short of meeting even their most basic needs.

PCHR said that the water crisis is part of Israel’s “policy of systematic and calculated deprivation” as the genocidal Jewish state attempts to make the enclave unliveable.

Last month, a report by Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights also reached the same conclusion:

[T]his situation is the result of a systematic policy pursued by the occupying forces within the context of the ongoing genocide, aimed at creating conditions that are unlivable for the civilian population.

The crisis extends beyond the need for drinking water, as it “impede[s] food preparation, the sterilization of medical equipment, the operation of healthcare facilities, and the maintenance of even the most basic standards of personal hygiene.”

“Together, these conditions have made the water crisis a major factor in worsening starvation, the spread of disease, malnutrition, and rising mortality among children, patients, and older persons,” the PCHR report added.

The Israeli restrictions on the entry of fuel, vehicle spare parts, electricity generators, and heavy equipment have made it extremely difficult for Gaza officials to meet the needs of the surviving population. This situation has led to widespread scenes of young children carrying heavy jerrycans full of water over long distances to provide essential water for their families.

The genocidal Israeli military has frequently been recorded destroying desalination plants and other infrastructure with the explicit aim of depriving Palestinians of water. The Israelis have destroyed 85 percent of Gaza’s main water wells and more than 150 kilometres of primary and secondary water distribution networks within the municipality’s jurisdiction.

Husni Mhanna, spokesperson for Gaza Municipality, told PCHR that the destruction of the desalination plant in the al-Sudaniyah area alone eliminated around 10 percent of the enclave’s water needs. He warned that the remaining water facilities are at risk of complete shutdown at any moment due to the acute shortage of engine oil, spare parts, filters, and pipes.

This destruction has left 91% of the Gaza Strip’s population without water security since the outbreak of the war. Approximately 65% of the population has been forced to survive on less than six liters of water per person per day — a quantity that falls far below the minimum required to meet basic survival needs.

Palestinian boy drinks from puddle amid Gaza water crisis in February 2024. [Source.]

This crisis is leading to unprecedented suffering for families in Gaza.

So’ad Fares al-Sayed, a mother of six who lost her husband while he went looking for food, has been forced to ration water.

She told PCHR that “her family relies on water tankers that arrive only irregularly, and that her daughters face great difficulty filling jerrycans because of the intense overcrowding and pushing among hundreds of displaced people. In most cases, the family manages to obtain only one or two jerrycans of water per day — an amount that is insufficient to meet even their basic drinking and personal hygiene needs. She added that her family has been forced to ration their water consumption and go for days without bathing, causing her children to develop skin diseases. According to doctors, these conditions are primarily due to the inability to maintain basic personal hygiene.”

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