The Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) issued an urgent humanitarian appeal today, warning that the Gaza Strip is “dying of thirst” as over 2.3 million residents are deprived of access to the minimum amount of water required for survival.
The statement follows Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa’s declaration last week that Gaza is officially a famine zone.
The PWA accused Israel of committing a grave and systematic war crime by using thirst and starvation as tools of genocide. According to the appeal, water extraction in Gaza has declined by 70–80% since the beginning of the ongoing genocide. Current water consumption has dropped to an alarming 3–5 liters per person per day—far below the World Health Organization’s emergency minimum of 15 liters.
The destruction has left the water and sanitation system on the brink of total collapse. The Interim Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (IRDNA) for Gaza estimates that 85% of water and sanitation infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed. Power cuts, fuel shortages, and military restrictions have also paralyzed efforts to repair and restore essential services. Wastewater systems are non-functional, resulting in the discharge of untreated sewage into residential areas and stormwater basins now overflowing with contaminated water—posing grave public health threats.
Without clean water, many Gazans have resorted to using brackish agricultural wells, leading to widespread exposure to waterborne diseases. Hospitals, already overwhelmed, lack the water and sanitation necessary to contain outbreaks or treat patients adequately.
The PWA emphasized that the Israeli targeting of water access and infrastructure is a violation of multiple international laws and conventions. These include the 1948 Genocide Convention, under which deliberately depriving civilians of conditions necessary for survival—including water—is defined as an act of genocide. It is also a breach of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which recognizes the denial of essential resources as a war crime, especially when civilians—including children—die from dehydration or malnutrition.
Moreover, Israel’s actions violate the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and the 2019 Geneva List of Principles on the Protection of Water Infrastructure, which prohibit the use of water infrastructure as a weapon of war.
The PWA urged the international community to take urgent and decisive action to stop what it called “a deliberate and systematic campaign to exterminate the civilian population of Gaza through thirst, hunger, and disease.”
Unless immediate steps are taken to allow the entry of water, fuel, and materials to restore services, the PWA warned that Gaza is on the verge of mass death from dehydration and disease.
Source: Palestinian Official News Agency (WAFA)
