Extreme Thirst in Gaza: Israeli-Made water crisis worsens situation

By Hadeel Abu Nassar

Nearly two million residents of the Gaza Strip, over half of whom are already displaced, are suffering from a severe water crisis, especially when it comes to fresh and potable water.

Israel has intentionally targeted the infrastructure of water and sewage networks during its ongoing devastating war on the besieged Gaza Strip for ten months, destroying 42 water wells completely, 16 wells partially, and 70,000 linear meters of water networks, according to the municipality of Gaza.

As a result, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians are struggling to obtain adequate water to meet their needs during their exhausting days amid Israel’s ongoing deadly aggression on Gaza.

During this war, the Israeli military has employed arbitrary policies of starvation and the prohibition of basic life necessities against Palestinians, such as food, clean water, fuel, and minimal access to medical supplies.

“The available water in Gaza is estimated to be around 10-20% of the total water amount before the Israeli aggression,” the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and the Environmental Quality Authority said in a statement last March.

They asserted that this amount is unstable and depends on fuel availability, adding that the continued Israeli war has destroyed 350 out of 700 kilometers of water networks and 9 out of 10 water tanks.

The per capita share of water in the Gaza Strip has decreased by 96.5% during the war, with civilians barely accessing between 3-15 liters of water per day, according to the statement.

This catastrophic situation is exacerbated by Israel’s ongoing ban on the entry of fuel and other necessary supplies into the enclave. The lack of fuel has forced the operating water desalination plants providing clean drinking water to Gaza’s population to stop working, worsening the daily suffering of Palestinians.

The Daily Suffering of Gazan People

Khloud Al-Aloul, a Palestinian mother from Rafah, was displaced with her family to the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Yunis. She said that one truck transporting potable water to the area comes every day to provide them with some clean water.

She highlighted that this truck is insufficient for the growing number of displaced Palestinians there.

“The truck contains approximately seven barrels per barrel of 1,000 or 2,000 liters, but the number of Palestinians gathering to fill up jugs with water from the truck exceeds its capacity by a hundred times.”

“The situation there is catastrophic. We use these small quantities of water for drinking, washing dishes, and laundering,” she complained.

Extreme Thirst

Khloud is considered lucky compared to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian citizens, who suffer from extreme thirst amid the scorching heat of summer, during which their water consumption increases. Water is essential for their survival in such searing heat waves.

Gaza Municipality spokesman Hosni Muhanna has warned of severe thirst facing the Palestinians, saying, “This thirst resulted from an acute water shortage as a result of the policy of destroying wells and water lines since the beginning of the devastating Israeli war.”

Muhanna stated that the Israeli army destroyed at least four water wells during its latest sudden invasion of the Al-Shuja’iyya neighborhood, east of Gaza City, in late June.

“It’s the morning routine. Children are carrying the weight of themselves back to their shelters,” Louise Wateridge, a spokesperson for UNRWA, told NBC News in a phone interview Wednesday from nearby Khan Yunis.

She added that they can often spend as much as six to eight hours trying to collect both food and water.

Wateridge mentioned that disease was “spreading everywhere” amid difficulties disposing of garbage, treating sewage, and delivering clean water, as well as humanitarian aid and basic hygiene products, after months of a devastating war.

“The conditions they are living in are appalling. There’s no hygiene … people are telling us they have nothing to wash with.”

“They know the water from the sea is not hygienic in any state. Using it is an act of desperation,” she added, noting that Palestinians were forced to use seawater for cooking and cleaning, despite untreated sewage being pumped into the Mediterranean Sea with wastewater treatment plants shut down.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned earlier in June of the repercussions of the forced cessation of the operation of water desalination plants in the Gaza Strip due to the lack of fuel needed to operate them.

The UN agency said in a tweet on the X platform at the time: “Due to the lack of fuel in Gaza, important water desalination plants have stopped working.”

“People do not have enough water. Survival has become a major challenge.”

The cessation of these stations forces “families, including children, to walk long distances to get water.”