“Israeli authorities have over the past year intentionally inflicted on the Palestinian population in Gaza ‘conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.’”
A new Human Rights Watch report has concluded that Israel’s deliberate obstruction of the Palestinian population’s access to water in Gaza amounts to an “act of genocide.”
Published on Thursday, the report cites figures by the World Health Organization (WHO) that indicate that a person needs between 50 and 100 liters of water per day to ensure that their “most basic needs are met.” In protracted emergency situations, the minimum amount of water required is 15 liters of water per person per day for drinking and washing.
“Yet, between October 2023 and September 2024, Israeli authorities’ actions have deprived the majority of the more than 2 million Palestinians living in Gaza of access to even that bare minimum amount of water, which has contributed to death and widespread disease,” said the HRW report.
Sea Water Consumed
For many in Gaza, much or all of the water they have had access to is not suitable for drinking.
NEW: Since October 2023, the Israeli government has deliberately denied Palestinians in Gaza the minimum water needed for survival, most likely resulting in thousands of deaths.
A calculated policy.
An act of genocide. 🧵⤵️https://t.co/UTuClydpwt pic.twitter.com/OBTmN10RLm
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) December 19, 2024
“If we can’t find drinkable water, we drink the sea water,” one father displaced to a school in Rafah told HRW in December 2023.
The rights organization interviewed 66 Palestinians in Gaza between October 18, 2023, and July 23, 2024, who described “the near-impossibility of securing water for themselves and their families.”
Infrastructure Destroyed
HRW also spoke to four of Gaza’s Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU) employees, 31 doctors and healthcare professionals, and 15 individuals working with UN agencies and international aid organizations in Gaza, “who described Israeli forces’ actions that have deprived Palestinians in Gaza of water, as well as the devastating health impacts, including death.”
By deliberately depriving people of water, the Israeli government created “conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction” of Palestinians in Gaza. That’s how the Genocide convention defines a “genocidal act.” pic.twitter.com/BvwPlQ7Jla
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) December 19, 2024
For the report, HRW also analyzed satellite imagery and verified photographs and videos captured between “the beginning of the hostilities and August 2024.”
“These show extensive damage and destruction to water and sanitation infrastructure, including the apparently deliberate, systematic razing of the solar panels powering four of Gaza’s six wastewater treatment plants by Israeli ground forces, as well as Israeli soldiers filming themselves demolishing a key water reservoir,” the report said.
Clear Intention
HRW noted that Israeli authorities made clear their intention to deprive the population of Gaza of necessities after October 7, 2023.
On October 9, then-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered “a complete siege” on Gaza, stating “[t]here will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel, everything is closed.”
Exactly one year ago, Israel’s defense minister Yoav Gallant ordered a complete siege on Gaza:
“There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting HUMAN ANIMALS and we are acting accordingly.”Human rights experts immediately warned… pic.twitter.com/HfDGHgvN0o
— In Context (@incontextmedia) October 9, 2024
On October 11, 2023, then-Energy Minister and current Minister of Defense Israel Katz echoed the call for electricity, water, and fuel to be cut, and on October 12, 2023, he called for humanitarian aid to be cut as well, said the report.
“Since then, Israeli authorities and military forces have matched these statements with actions,” HRW stressed.
UN, Aid Agencies Blocked
The report said Israeli authorities and forces cut off the water supply piped into Gaza from Israel and later restricted the supply, cut off the electricity supply from Israel to Gaza that was needed to operate water pumps, desalination plants, and sanitation infrastructure within Gaza, and blocked and restricted the fuel needed to run generators in the absence of electricity.
Governments arming Israel and undermining accountability efforts risk complicity in Israel’s atrocities in Gaza.
Countries have legal + moral responsibility to prevent genocide against Palestinians by arms embargo, targeted sanctions & support for justice. pic.twitter.com/EJaF6nVAuP
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) December 19, 2024
“They have also blocked United Nations agencies and humanitarian aid organizations from delivering critical water-related materials and other humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, damaged, and in some cases, deliberately destroyed water and sanitation infrastructure,” it said. This included where Israeli forces were in control of the area, and prevented repairs by blocking imports of nearly all water-related material.
Some Israeli strikes have killed water utility workers as they were trying to make repairs, while others have “destroyed the main water-utility warehouse in Gaza which housed spare parts, equipment, and supplies critical to water production.”
ICJ Rulings
The report highlighted the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) provisional measures issued on January 26, 2024, that included requiring Israel to prevent genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, enable the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance, and prevent and punish incitement to commit genocide.
A number of Palestinians were killed whilst they were filling water in the Shate’a refugee camp, north of Gaza city. pic.twitter.com/rTIz4SitNE
— Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) December 19, 2024
At the time, the ICJ determined that “many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have no access to the most basic foodstuffs, potable water, electricity, essential medicines or heating.”
Since then, the ICJ has issued two further provisional measures, reaffirming its prior orders, and stated in May that the orders should be “immediately and effectively implemented,” the report noted.
However, Israel has since that time violated the ICJ’s measures, including preventing “the deprivation of access to adequate food and water.”
‘War Crime’
International humanitarian law (IHL) requires Israel, as the occupying power in Gaza, to provide for the welfare of the occupied population and ensure that the needs of the civilian population are provided for, according to the HRW report.
When done deliberately, the destruction of objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population (OIS), including water and sanitation infrastructure, “may amount to a war crime.”
‘Crime against Humanity’ – Israeli Army Blows Up Water Reservoir amid Water Crisis
In several instances, Israeli forces deliberately targeted water and sanitation infrastructure in Gaza, including in areas under their control, the report noted. Israeli authorities have “deliberately cut off electricity supplies and blocked fuel supplies into Gaza, rendering nearly all water and sanitation infrastructure useless.”
“Israeli authorities’ intentional destruction of and rendering useless OIS therefore amounts to a war crime,” said the HRW report.
“Using starvation as a method of warfare by destroying and rendering useless OIS is a war crime. Starvation includes water deprivation,” the report added.
Use of Starvation
“Israeli authorities’ and forces’ actions of intentionally destroying and rendering useless water infrastructure essential to the survival of the civilian population in Gaza constitute the use of starvation as a method of warfare by deliberately destroying and rendering useless OIS, amounting to a war crime,” it noted.
HRW concluded that “Israeli authorities have over the past year intentionally inflicted on the Palestinian population in Gaza ‘conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.’”
“This policy, inflicted as part of a mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza means Israeli authorities have committed the crime against humanity of extermination, which is ongoing,” the report said.
“This policy also amounts to an ‘act of genocide’ under the Genocide Convention of 1948,” it added.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
