Palestinians gather to fill water jugs near one of the strip’s few functioning desalination plants in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, June 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Gaza (Quds News Network)- Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of committing “acts of genocide” in Gaza by deliberately depriving Palestinians of adequate access to water.
In a new 184-page report released on Thursday, HRW said that since October 2023 – when Israel launched its military assault in Gaza – Israeli occupation authorities have “deliberately obstructed Palestinians’ access to the adequate amount of water required for survival in the Gaza Strip”.
“What we have found is that the Israeli government is intentionally killing Palestinians in Gaza by denying them the water that they need to survive,” Lama Fakih, Human Rights Watch Middle East director told a news conference.
The report is based on interviews with dozens of Palestinians from Gaza, including water authority officials, sanitation experts and healthcare workers, as well as satellite imagery and data from October 2023 to September 2024.
It says Israel intentionally damaged infrastructure, including solar panels powering treatment plants, a reservoir, and a spare parts warehouse, while also blocking fuel for generators.
It says Israel also cut electricity supplies, attacked repair workers and blocked the entry into Gaza of repair materials.
The report concluded that this policy amounts to “acts of genocide” under the criteria outlines in the Genocide Convention of 1948. “Israeli occupation authorities intentionally inflicted on the Palestinian population in Gaza ‘conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,’” it said.
“This isn’t just negligence,” said HRW executive director Tirana Hassan. “It is a calculated policy of deprivation that has led to the deaths of thousands from dehydration and disease that is nothing short of the crime against humanity of extermination, and an act of genocide.”
The HRW report notes that to constitute the crime of genocide, alleged actions require evidence of intent. It says the findings “may indicate such intent”.
The report cites statements by some senior Israeli officials which it said suggested they “wish to destroy Palestinians” and which means the deprivation of water “may amount to the crime of genocide”.
The HRW report is the latest in a series of accusations by rights groups and others that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) – the UN’s top court – is currently examining a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide.
Amnesty International also issued earlier this month a landmark report that concluded that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide.
The Genocide Convention of 1948, enacted following the mass murder of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.
In light of its findings, HRW called on the international community to issue “targeted sanctions, suspension of arms transfers and military assistance, and review of bilateral trade and political agreements” to pressure Israel to comply with the ICJ’s provisional measures.
