World Water Day: Deprivation of Water and destruction of water installations are tools of Israel’s Genocide against the Palestinian people

Every year on 22 March, World Water Day is observed to address the importance of taking action on water. As the United Nations (UN) stresses, while access to water is a human right, “2.2 billion live without safely managed drinking water services, with devastating impacts for their lives and wider society”. For the second year in a row, these impacts have been exacerbated in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), where Israel continues its unimpeded genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people.

1. Systematic Denial of Water in Gaza from Forced Famine Conditions

As part of this campaign, Israel has committed genocidal acts of deliberately creating conditions intended to bring about the destruction of the Palestinian people, including by cutting off all supplies to Gaza, and placing Gaza under an electricity blackout. It was only in November 2024 that Israel reconnected the South Gaza Desalination Plant to its electricity grid, allowing it to produce 18,000 cubic meters of drinking water per day. However, on 9 March 2025, Israel once again cut off electricity to Gaza, meaning that the “plant can only provide about 2,500 cubic metres of water per day”, putting 600,000 Palestinians at heightened risk for their life in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis.

 On 2 March 2025, Israel’s authorities halted the entry of all humanitarian supplies, jeopardizing Palestinians’ very survival in the context of an already dire humanitarian situation. These decisions have drastically reduced the water available to Palestinians, prompting the UN Children’s Fund to warn that “severe water shortages in Gaza have reached critical levels, with only one in 10 people currently able to access safe drinking water.” In its effort to starve the Palestinian people in Gaza, Israel has conducted a smear campaign crippling UN Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the main source of humanitarian aid in Gaza, which has made food and water, among other items, more precarious.

Furthermore, Israel has prevented the construction of sewage treatment plants in Gaza, blocking the entry of materials needed to build and operate them as “dual-use”. United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, Mr. Pedro Arrojo-Agudo has warned that such categorisations impedes “proper sewage treatment, which is progressively leading to faecal contamination of groundwater" in Gaza. In addition, Israel has destroyed or damaged 89% of the water, sanitation, and hygiene sector facilities, amounting to 1.700 kilometers of water and sanitation networks destroyed. In January 2025, the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) destroyed Gaza’s desalination plant, which was the only safe and reliable source of clean water for Gazans, repeating a pattern of targeting critical water infrastructures observed in previous Israeli military attacks on Gaza. The situation is particularly horrific in North Gaza and Rafah where “less than seven per cent of pre-conflict water levels is available to people, heightening the spread of waterborne diseases. Just 5.7 litres per person, per day”, which is far below the minimum requirement of 15 indicated by the World Health Organisation in emergencies, pushing Palestinians to bathe once every ten days.

Al-Haq stresses that water restrictions and the destruction of water infrastructures are far-reaching measures that blatantly violate international human rights law (IHRL). In addition to infringing the right to affordable, available and clean water, they also contravene the right to health, a concern raised by the UN Experts who have warned that in Gaza:

“The lack of clean water has led to 1.7 million cases of infection diseases, mainly diarrhea, dysentery and hepatitis A, particularly affecting children, as well as cases of polio, smallpox and other infectious diseases that can trigger massive and deadly epidemics. All these coupled with the lack of medical care result in deaths, especially of babies and children, making water scarcity and contamination a silent bomb, which has far less visibility than those that destroy buildings, but are no less lethal bomb.”

Overall, these Israeli policies and practices have put 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza in urgent need of water sanitation and hygiene assistance. While the ceasefire signed between Hamas and Israel on 15 January 2025 has allowed for an influx of humanitarian aid, Israel is now “deepening hunger” in Gaza and may well renew the cycle of famine, “which has a reasonable risk of reoccurring”, as warned by the IPC Global Initiative.

2. Targeting of Water Infrastructure in the West Bank

Israel has also destroyed Palestinian water infrastructure in the West Bank, including at least 81 water wells used for agricultural or household purposes, documented by Al-Haq since the beginning of 2024. The destruction of water infrastructure and wells is part of an ongoing policy creating coercive environments to force displacement.^[1]Al-Haq documented the case of Mansour Hassan Yahya Abu Salim who received an order to stop the construction of his agricultural well and was not able to challenge it. On 3 June 2024, the IOF destroyed his well, without prior warning, under the pretext of a lack of a building permit. Mansour added that three years before, he took Israeli oil exploration activities to court, which may be why he and his well were then targeted.^[2]

Furthermore, on 10 October 2024, Israeli army bulldozers demolished two agricultural ponds located between the villages of al-Jalameh and Arana. The ponds belong to Palestinian farmers Abdullah Arafat Anas Farahati and Muhammad Suleiman Amin Ghoneim, who were denied irrigation water, threatening the viability of their agricultural crops inside their greenhouses.^[3] On 16 July 2024, at 9:00 AM, the IOF confiscated a water pump belonging to Ahmed Eid Farhan Oudallah and Ibrahim Muhammad, pouring cement inside the water well located near Jericho. Palestinian water infrastructure has also been the target of settler attacks. Zuhair Jamil Rizk Abdul Razzaq recalled to Al-Haq how his agricultural well was partly demolished by Israeli settlers in an attack on 4 December 2024. The settlers demolished a stone chain he had built around the well and dropped stones inside the well.^[4]

Legal Analysis

In light of the above, on 21 November 2024, Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued warrants of arrest against Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and former Minister of Defence, Yoav Gallant. It found “reasonable grounds” to believe that they bear criminal responsibility for the crime of starvation of a method of warfare, intentionally and knowingly depriving the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity, from 7 October 2023 onwards. In reaching this conclusion, the Chamber noted “Netanyahu’s statement connecting the halt in the essential goods and humanitarian aid with the goals of war” and emphasised that “no clear military need or other justification under international humanitarian law could be identified.”  As previously warned by Al-Haq, Israel’s attacks on water facilities and water-related installations are meant to further its policy of using starvation as a means of warfare.

In the Gaza Strip, even before 7 October 2023, Israel had been unilaterally imposing and maintaining a blockade since 2007, denying the Palestinian people items essential for survival. In the West Bank, for decades, Israel’s Zionist settler-colonial and apartheid regime has deliberately used its control over water sources and distribution systems for the sole benefit of the Jewish people and to entrench its racial domination over the Palestinians, breaching core international law principles of non-discrimination. UNSR Arrojo-Agudo denounced this “water and territorial apartheid” imposed on the Palestinian people, including the destruction of basic water infrastructures, and the discriminatory treatment of Palestinians who “only 70 Liters per person per day, and many rural communities have only 20 Liters, while the Israeli population has four times more on average, and illegal settlers receive and use 18 times more water for their crops and swimming pools". 

In 2024, Israel inflicted famine conditions on Palestinian in Gaza denying lifesaving humanitarian aid entry into and around the Gaza Strip. In Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel), the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a Provisional Measures Order on 26 January 2024 in which it determined that Israel was plausibly committing the crime of genocide, adding that famine was a risk threatening Palestinians. On 28 March 2024, the ICJ considered that “the fact that famine is setting in with at least 31 people, including 27 children, having died of malnutrition and dehydration” are “exceptionally grave” conditions, which warranted the modification of these provisional measures. Hence it ordered Israel to “take all necessary and effective measures to ensure […] the unhindered provision at scale by all concerned of urgently need basic services and humanitarian assistance, including food, water, electricity, fuel shelter, clothing, hygiene and sanitation requirements […]”. Famine is one of the “indicators of genocidal activities” pointed out by Judge Yusuf’s declaration. Notwithstanding, nothing has been done to protect the Palestinian people from irreparable harm arising from Israel's genocidal conduct in Gaza.

Israel’s presence in the OPT was declared illegal by the ICJ in its landmark Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences Arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem (19 July 2024), partly because it violates the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, which includes the right to exercise permanent sovereignty over natural resources. Based on Article 55 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which provides that an occupying Power, is only an administrator and usufructuary of natural resources in the occupied territory, which thus can only be used to the necessary extent for the purpose of the occupation, under Article 55 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the ICJ concluded that:

Israel’s use of natural resources in the [OPT] is inconsistent with its obligations under international law. By diverting a large share of the natural resources to its own population, including settlers, Israel is in breach of its obligation to act as administrator and usufructuary. In this connection, the Court recalls that the transfer by Israel of its own population to the Occupied Palestinian Territory is contrary to international law (see paragraph 119 above). Therefore, in the Court’s view, the use of natural resources in the occupied territory cannot be justified with reference to the needs of that population. The Court further considers that, by severely restricting the access of the Palestinian population to water that is available in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Israel acts inconsistently with its obligation to ensure the availability of water in sufficient quantity and quality (Article 55 of the Fourth Geneva Convention). […]. In light of the above, the Court also concludes that Israel’s policy of exploitation of natural resources in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is inconsistent with its obligation to respect the Palestinian people’s right to permanent sovereignty over natural resources (para. 133).

Recommendations

On World Water Day, Al-Haq urges the international community and Third States to take concrete and decisive actions to:

• End Israel’s 17-year blockade and closure of Gaza and dismantle its illegal occupation and apartheid regime, ensuring the full and unhindered supply of water into the Gaza Strip;
• Impose sanctions and arms embargoes on Israel;
• Sanction corporations domiciled in their jurisdiction for the pillage of Palestinian water in the occupied Palestinian territory and water apartheid.
• We further call on the Prosecutor of the ICC to include additional charges against Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Gallant and to submit further requests for arrest warrants related to those Israeli officials and military commanders who are the most responsible for weaponising water in Gaza and facilitating famine, including but not limited to Israel’s current Defence Minister and former Energy Minister Israel Katz.