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According to a new Oxfam report, “Water War Crimes: How Israel has weaponized water in its military campaign in Gaza”—
Israel's use of water as a weapon has plummeted Gaza's already scarce water supply by 94%, creating a deadly health catastrophe.
• Israel damages or destroys five water and sanitation sites every three days. The extreme lack of clean water and sanitation has caused more than a quarter (26%) of Gaza’s population to fall severely ill from easily preventable diseases.
• Israel has cut Gaza's external water supply, is systematically destroying water facilities, and deliberately obstructing the entry of aid, and has thereby reduced the already limited amount of water available in Gaza by 94%—to 4.74 litres a day per person. This amount is less than one third of the recommended minimum in emergencies and less than a single toilet flush. This amount is for all uses including drinking, cooking, and washing.
• Israel destroyed 70% of Gaza's sewage pumps and 100% of wastewater treatment plants, as well as the main water quality testing laboratories.
Israel's overall use of water as a weapon against Palestinians was condemned by the International Court of Justice in its July 19 Advisory Opinion on the illegality of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. The ICJ ruling calls for Israel “to bring an end to its presence in the Occupied Palestinian territory as rapidly as possible” and provide reparations for Palestinians.
Regarding water, the report
• criticizes Israel for controlling the water resources in the West Bank, which has resulted in Palestinians' drastically reduced access to water to below the levels recommended by the World Health Organization.
• criticizes Israel for prioritizing the supply of water to the illegal settlements, to the detriment of Palestinian communities, which must suffer lengthy and frequent water outages.
• criticizes Israel for forbidding Palestinians from constructing and maintaining water installations.
• criticizes Israel for preventing Palestinians from accessing and extracting water from the Jordan River, which also forces Palestinians to buy significant quantities of water from Israel at a high price.
• criticizes Israel’s water and land policies, which drastically reduced Palestinian agricultural land. The share of agriculture in the gross domestic product of the Occupied Palestinian Territory declined from 35% in 1972 to less than 4% in 2020.
• criticizes Israel's expansion of settlements and of industrial zones, which pollutes freshwater and groundwater.
"I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed." — Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Oct. 9, 2023.
As of July 23, 2024, the number of people Israel killed surpasses 39,000. (Approximately the population of the Marshall Islands.) The number of people Israel wounded surpasses 90,000. (Equal to the population of Trenton, New Jersey.)
Sources : Oxfam report, Water War Crimes, International Court of Justice, ICJ ruling.
Oxfam Report: Israel Using Water as a Weapon of War
Israel using water as weapon of war as Gaza supply plummets by 94%, creating deadly health catastrophe: Oxfam
July 18, 2024 By Oxfam
A new Oxfam report reveals how Israel has been systematically weaponizing water against Palestinians in Gaza.
The report, Water War Crimes, finds that Israel’s cutting of external water supply, systematic destruction of water facilities and deliberate aid obstruction have reduced the amount of water available in Gaza by 94% to 4.74 liters a day per person – just under a third of the recommended minimum in emergencies and less than a single toilet flush.
Oxfam analysis also found:
Israeli military attacks have damaged or destroyed five water and sanitation infrastructure sites every three days since the start of the war.
The destruction of water and electricity infrastructure and restrictions on entry of spare parts and fuel (on average a fifth of the required amount is allowed in) saw water production drop by 84% in Gaza. External supply from Israel’s national water company Mekorot fell by 78%.
Israel has destroyed 70% of all sewage pumps and 100% of all wastewater treatment plants, as well as the main water quality testing laboratories in Gaza, and restricted the entry of Oxfam water testing equipment.
Gaza City has lost nearly all its water production capacity, with 88% of its water wells and 100% of its desalination plants damaged or destroyed.
The report also highlighted the dire impact of this extreme lack of clean water and sanitation on Palestinians’ health, with more than a quarter (26%) of Gaza’s population falling severely ill from easily preventable diseases. In January, the International Court of Justice demanded that Israel immediately improve humanitarian access upon finding that South Africa had brought plausible claims under the Genocide Convention. Since then, Oxfam has witnessed firsthand Israel’s obstruction of a meaningful humanitarian response, which is killing Palestinian civilians.
Scott Paul, Oxfam America’s Associate Director of Peace and Security, said, “Oxfam’s new analysis leaves little doubt that Prime Minister Netanyahu's government has systemically obliterated Gaza’s clean water supply and infrastructure.
“Today, Palestinians in Gaza have almost no water to drink, let alone to bathe, cook, or clean. Prime Minister Netanyahu must restore sufficient water, food, electricity, and other vital assistance for all people in Gaza. Instead of granting him the platform to double down on his deadly offensive to Congress, US leaders must cut off the supply of bombs that are being used to kill civilians and destroy Gaza and with it, any hope for peace.”
Oxfam Water and Sanitation Specialist Lama Abdul Samad said it was clear that Israel had created a devastating humanitarian emergency resulting in Palestinian civilian deaths:
“The deliberate restriction of access to water is not a new tactic. The Israeli Government has been depriving Palestinians across the West Bank and Gaza of safe and sufficient water for many years,” she said.
“The widespread destruction and significant restrictions on aid delivery in Gaza impacting access to water and other essentials for survival, underscores the urgent need for the international community to take decisive action to prevent further suffering by upholding justice and human rights, including those enshrined in the Geneva and Genocide Conventions.”
Monther Shoblak, General Manager of the Gaza Strip’s water utility CMWU, said:
“My colleagues and I have been living through a nightmare these past nine months, but we still feel it’s our responsibility and duty to ensure everybody in Gaza is getting their minimum right of clean drinking water. It’s been very difficult, but we are determined to keep trying – even when we witness our colleagues being targeted and killed by Israel while undertaking their work.”
Oxfam is calling for urgent action including an immediate and permanent ceasefire; for Israel to allow a full and unfettered humanitarian response; and for Israel to foot the reconstruction bill for water and sanitation infrastructure.
/ENDS
NOTES TO EDITOR:
Water, fuel and supply related data was current at May 26, 2024
Destruction figures were current at June 3, 2024
Methodology used to calculate figures available upon request
Oxfam analysis of WHO figures found that a lack of clean water and sanitation led to 26% of Gaza’s population falling ill to easily preventable diseases
This image was from the headlines from Democracy Now! on July 19.
The Gaza Genocide Deepens: The Reckoning Begins for the Perpetrators
In a tiny enclave with 2.3 million people (compared to the total population of Japan and Germany in World War II of 152 million), at least 300,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed with more dying every day.
…
Why then does the media stick to the official Hamas Health Ministry’s huge undercount now at about 39,000 deaths? First, early on, the Ministry took its figures from names of the deceased provided by hospitals and morgues which are now devastated and inoperative. The Hamas regime doesn’t mind this undercount since it lessens the criticism that it cannot protect its own people and shelter them from what they knew was coming after October 7th from the most racist, genocidal, and expansionist Israeli regime ever.
Netanyahu – who has boasted over the years to his Likud Party, that he has backed and helped fund Hamas due to its opposition to a two-state solution – likes the vast undercount of his mass slaughter.
Read the article here.
Image by Janne Leimola.