How Israel’s restrictions have turned water into a matter of life and death in Gaza
LONDON: Israel is using access to water as a weapon of war and a tool of collective punishment against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, Medecins Sans Frontieres has said in a new report. The aid group and other organizations have also given warning that families face dehydration and disease.
Meanwhile, small children haul water containers nearly as heavy as themselves over long distances from distribution points run by nongovernmental organizations — in freezing cold and scorching heat — still unable to meet even a fraction of their families’ need for clean water.
In an April 28 report, MSF documented how Israeli authorities have been deliberately depriving Palestinians in Gaza of water as an “integral part of Israel’s genocide.”
“Israeli authorities know that without water, life ends,” said Claire San Filippo, MSF emergency manager. “Yet they have deliberately and systematically obliterated water infrastructure in Gaza, while consistently blocking water-related supplies from entering.”
