GENEVA - UN experts* today expressed alarm at Israel's deliberate withholding of access to safe drinking water from Palestinians in Gaza, calling it a serious violation of international law and a crime against humanity.
"Israel is using thirst as a weapon to kill Palestinians," the experts said. "Cutting off water and food is a silent but lethal bomb that kills mostly children and babies. The sight of infants dying in their mothers' arms is unbearable. How can world leaders sleep while this suffering continues?"
"This catastrophe was not only predictable; it was predicted. Israel's blockade and destruction of civilian infrastructure has left most of Gaza's two million residents displaced and without access to the minimum vital amount of drinking water," the experts said. This has led to deaths and widespread illness caused by water pollution, and a lack of sanitation and hygiene.
Since October 2023, Israel's military operations have repeatedly targeted water facilities, wells, pipelines, desalination units, and sewage systems. Eighty-nine per cent of Gaza's water and sanitation infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed by Israel's forces, leaving over 90 per cent of households water insecure.
"Israel's acts right now in Gaza are barbaric, and the related actions of Government officials constitute crimes under the Rome Statute: extermination is committed by cutting off the supply of medicine, food and water," the experts said.
"These intentional, widespread and systematic attacks against Palestinians are a deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a population - another act of genocide."
In its Advisory Opinion of 9 July 2024, the International Court of Justice confirmed Israel's obligation, as the occupying power, to ensure that the local population has an adequate supply of foodstuffs, including water. However, Israel has reduced the amount of water allowed to enter the Gaza Strip, including emergency water deliveries, which has resulted in water shortages and rationing, forcing residents to rely on unsafe and contaminated water sources.
With fuel supplies almost completely depleted, humanitarian actors have been forced to reduce life-saving activities, including the distribution of drinking water. The experts noted that critical water wells inside UNRWA installations providing hundreds of thousands of litres per day for WASH activities and for desalinated drinking water will have to shut down if an increased quantity of fuel necessary to support them is not immediately allowed into the Gaza Strip.
Rising summer temperatures and catastrophic hygiene conditions, combined with a lack of access to clean water, continue to have devastating consequences, including increased fatalities from dehydration, and an increase in waterborne diseases.
"We call for immediate deployment of naval humanitarian aid from all Mediterranean ports, delivering fuel, water, supplies, and personnel to help restore essential services in Gaza and meet urgent humanitarian needs," the experts said.
"The international community must act now to end this inhumane and unlawful deprivation and to guarantee the urgent restoration of water and sanitation in Gaza," they said.
