Gazans say renewed IDF attacks cut off clean water for hundreds of thousands
Hamas-appointed authorities say military damaged Strip’s northern pipeline, causing ‘real thirst crisis’; Israel: Malfunctioning pipe will be fixed as soon as possible
Gaza City’s Hamas-appointed municipality has accused Israel of cutting off the city’s main clean water source with its renewed offensive in the Strip, depriving hundreds of thousands of residents of potable water.
It says many now have to walk, sometimes for miles, to get a small water fill after Israeli operations in Gaza City’s eastern Shejaiya neighborhood, in the north of the Strip, damaged the pipeline operated by Israel’s state-owned water company Mekorot.
“Since morning, I have been waiting for water,” 42-year-old Gazan woman Faten Nassar told Reuters. “There are no stations and no trucks coming. There is no water. The crossings are closed. God willing, the war will end safely and peacefully.”
Adel Al-Hourani, 64, said, “I walk long distances. I get tired. I am old, I’m not young to walk around every day to get water.”
In a statement, the IDF said the northern pipeline had malfunctioned and that the military was in contact with the relevant organization to repair the pipeline as soon as possible.
The IDF said a second pipeline, supplying southern Gaza, was still operating. According to the military, the water supply “is based on various water sources, including wells and local desalination facilities distributed throughout the Gaza Strip.”
According to the Hamas-appointed municipality, the northern pipeline supplies some 70% of Gaza City’s water, with most wells having been destroyed in the war sparked on October 7, 2023, when the terror group stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
“The situation is very difficult, and things are getting more complicated, especially when it comes to people’s daily lives and their daily water needs, whether for cleaning, disinfecting, and even cooking and drinking,” said Gaza City municipality spokesperson Husni Mhana.
“We are now living in a real thirst crisis in Gaza City, and we could face a difficult reality in the coming days if the situation remains the same.”
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have become internally displaced by the war, with many making daily trips on foot to fill plastic containers with water from the few wells still functioning in remoter areas — and even these do not guarantee clean supplies.
Palestinian and United Nations officials have said most of Gaza’s desalination plants were either damaged or stopped operations because of Israel’s power and fuel cuts.
The Gaza Strip’s only natural source of water is the Coastal Aquifer Basin, which runs along the eastern Mediterranean coast from the northern Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, through Gaza and into Israel. But its salty tap water is severely depleted, with up to 97% deemed unfit for human consumption due to salinity, over-extraction and pollution.
In a joint statement on March 22, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority’s Water Authority and Bureau of Statistics said more than 85% of water and sanitation facilities and other assets in Gaza were completely or partially out of service.
“Due to the extensive damage incurred by the water and sanitation sector, water supply rates have declined to an average of 3-5 liters per person per day,” the statement said — a fraction of the 15 liters a day recommended by the World Health Organization for drinking, cooking and hygiene in humanitarian crises.
Israel cut off the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza on March 2, after the last Gaza truce’s first phase expired amid Hamas’s refusal to extend it and Israel’s refusal to negotiate a second phase. A week later, Israel announced it was disconnecting the only power line to a water desalination plant in the Strip that had been reconnected to Israel’s electric grid last year.
The IDF resumed operations on March 18, with a surprise series of massive airstrikes across the Strip. In Shejaiya last week, Israel issued evacuation warnings to residents ahead of a series of airstrikes that killed dozens of people, including the head of Hamas’s Shejaiya Battalion on Wednesday.
More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. The figure cannot be independently verified and does not distinguish between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 gunmen in Gaza as of January, as well as some 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the Hamas onslaught that sparked the war.
The Times of Israel Community.