Israel Deliberately Depriving Palestinians in Gaza of Water: Extermination and Acts of Genocide
Human Rights Watch report on Gaza Genocide:
Overview
Since October 2023, Israeli authorities have deliberately obstructed Palestinians’ access to the adequate amount of water required for survival in the Gaza Strip.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a person needs between 50 and 100 liters of water per day in order to ensure that their “most basic needs are met.”[1] In protracted emergency situations, the minimum amount of water required is 15 liters of water per person per day for drinking and washing.[2] 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.[3] For many in Gaza, much or all of the water they have had access to is not suitable for drinking.
“If we can't find drinkable water, we drink the sea water,” one father displaced to a school in Rafah told Human Rights Watch in December 2023.[4] “It happened to me many times when I had to drink the sea water. You don’t understand how much we are suffering.”
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Conclusion
Israeli authorities’ and forces’ actions to deprive the population of Gaza of access to water amount to acts of genocide under the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Specifically, their actions amount to deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Palestinian population in Gaza. Genocidal intent may also be inferred from Israeli authorities’ and forces’ continued actions to deprive Palestinians in Gaza of water, despite clear data and warnings from the United Nations since October and orders from the International Court of Justice calling for the provision of water since January, alongside Israeli authorities’ statements, and therefore these acts may amount to the crime of genocide.
The conditions that Israeli authorities have created in Gaza since October 2023—that of long-term and severe water deprivation—are such that they are leading to the slow deaths of Palestinians there, including newborn babies whose mothers cannot feed them due to being malnourished and dehydrated, and who are drinking formula mixed with dirty water due to the lack of access to clean water in Gaza; people with disabilities, who often have increased needs for clean water and additional challenges in accessing it; and people who simply have contracted water-borne illnesses but did not have adequate access to nutrition, clean water, and medical care because of Israeli government actions.
Without immediate action to ensure Palestinians are provided access to sufficient, clean water, it is virtually inevitable that large numbers of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip will continue to die from dehydration, water borne illnesses, and other diseases and infections caused by or exacerbated by the deprivation of adequate access to clean water.
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