The NGO for the defense of human rights Human Rights Watch (HRW) this Thursday he accused Israel of “extermination y acts of genocide“for denying access to agua to the Palestinians of the Gaza Stripand estimated that thousands of people have died from dehydration y diseases related during the war.
“The water is essential for human life, but for more than a year the Israeli Government has deliberately denied the Palestinians of Gaza the minimum they need to survive,” HRW executive director Tirana Hassan said in a statement.
This Thursday the group published a report in which he claims that Israeli authorities have deliberately deprived Palestinians in the Strip of safe access to water potable necessary for to drink y wash. According to HRW, the situation “has most likely resulted in thousands of deaths,” for which it accused Israel of “crime against humanity of extermination and acts of genocide”.
For its report, the group interviewed 66 Gazan Palestinians, four employees of the municipal garbage collection company (CMWU), 31 health workers and 15 workers from the UN and other international organizations. It also analyzed satellite images, photographs and videos, as well as data and estimates from doctors, epidemiologists and sanitation experts.
“Calculated policy”
“This is not just negligence; it is a calculated policy of deprivation which has caused the death of thousands from dehydration and illness,” Hassan said.
The agency estimates that hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza have contracted diseases caused by (or contributed to) the lack of clean water, such as diarrheathe hepatitis Askin or upper respiratory tract diseases.
“Water deprivation is particularly harmful to babies, pregnant and breastfeeding women,” the group recalled.
In a press conference to explain the report’s conclusions, the director of HRW’s Middle East division, Lama Fakih, said that the evidence collected should be a “clear message” for the Israeli government, although she acknowledged that, for the moment, , the international pressure has not been enough to stop the abuses.
Attacks against infrastructure
One of the examples that HRW gives are the numerous attacks Israelis against the infrastructure of water treatment and sanitation gazati. Most of the water in Gaza comes from an aquifer contaminated by the proximity of the sea and overexploitation, making these plants essential for the supply of drinking water.
HRW wrote on at least two occasions (in June and November of this year) to the Israeli authorities to request information about the attacks against these plants, and never received a response.
According to the group, which cites the UN, between November 2023 and April 2024, northern Gaza had no access to drinking water. Supply improved somewhat in August, but minimally. The situation has also been aggravated by the strict controls to the entry of humanitarian aid, since most supplies needed to repair sanitation plants or to address sewage backup may be considered “dual use” by Israeli authorities.
In mid-October, Israel announced that, “for the first time,” a sewage suction truck entered Gaza as part of winter preparations. But the Gazan municipal waste management company (CMWU) confirmed to Efe that the truck, which was introduced thanks to the collaboration of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), was requested before October 2023, when the war began. because even then there was a need.
The company explained that, since the beginning of the offensive, it has requested the entry of a large quantity of heavy machinery, such as flood control pumps, generators or sewer cleaning trucks, which have not yet received the permissions to enter.
