Water desalination quietly returns to Gaza, after work by Israel and PA
Repair of Deir al-Balah plant, connected to Israel’s power grid, seen as potential roadmap for Palestinian Authority’s involvement in postwar Gaza
The quiet resumption of operations at a desalination plant in the Gaza Strip last month marked a small but significant step toward restoring public services in the Palestinian territory ravaged by more than 14 months of war.
The process of restarting the plant in Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, involved both Israeli and Palestinian stakeholders who could have a hand in the territory’s future, especially amid renewed hopes for a ceasefire-hostage deal in recent days.
While its reopening has had a limited tangible impact so far, diplomats close to the project suggest it could offer a tentative roadmap for Gaza’s postwar administration.
Since being reconnected to Israel’s electricity grid, the station has been producing approximately 16,000 cubic meters of water per day, according to UNICEF.
It serves more than 600,000 Gaza residents through tankers or the networks of Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis governorates in central and southern Gaza, respectively.
“Its production capacity remains limited in the face of immense needs,” an official within the Palestinian Energy and Natural Resources Authority (PENRA) told AFP.
Residents of the devastated Palestinian territory have struggled since the early days of the war between Israel and the Hamas terror group to secure even basic necessities, including food and clean water.
Human Rights Watch last week accused Israel of committing “acts of genocide” in Gaza by restricting water access — a claim denied by Israeli authorities.
The WASH Cluster, which brings together humanitarian organizations in the water sector, reports that distribution of water has become very complex in Gaza.
The pipelines transporting water have been damaged, leaving Gazans — many of whom are living in makeshift shelters after being displaced by bombardments — without any means of storing the essential resource.
The plant is one of three such seawater processing facilities in the Gaza Strip, which before the war met around 15 percent of the 2 million-plus residents’ needs.
In the months following the outbreak of war, sparked by the shock Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which thousands of terrorists killed 1,200 people and abducted 251, the plant operated at minimal capacity, relying on solar panels and generators amid a persistent scarcity of fuel in Gaza.
It could fully resume operations only after reconnecting to one of the power lines supplied by Israel, which charges the Palestinian Authority for the electricity.
Practical solutions
UNICEF, which provides technical support for the Deir el-Balah plant, indicated in late June that it had reached an agreement with Israel to restore electricity to the plant.
Subsequently, the Israel Defense Forces’ Coordinated Office for Government Activity in the Territories (COGAT), overseeing civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, announced that the desalination plant had been reconnected to the Israeli grid.
But the line meant to supply the plant was heavily damaged.
“It took five months to repair the line from Kissufim” in Israel, said Mohammed Thabet, spokesman for Gaza’s electricity company. “These are emergency, temporary solutions.”
Several diplomatic sources told AFP that the episode showed the Palestinian Authority had proven it was in a position to have a hand in the future governance of Gaza, as its institutions were fixing the electricity line on the ground, coordinating with all actors.
The PA aims to play a central role in postwar Gaza, seeking to strengthen its influence in the territory after it was ousted when Hamas violently took control in 2007.
An Israeli security source told AFP that the Israeli partners involved had acted on “instructions from the political echelons,” and that the project was part of an effort to prevent an outbreak of disease, which could endanger the lives of hostages still held in Gaza.
Ninety-six of the people taken hostage by Hamas-led terrorists last year are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel “facilitated the connection of the electric line specifically to the desalination plant,” the source said, adding that a mechanism was in place to track usage to “prevent electricity from being stolen.”
In October and November, Israel worked with a UN-led polio vaccination drive in Gaza, pausing its bombing campaign against Hamas in areas where children were receiving the doses.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
