Written by Stephanie van den Berg
The Hague – Human Rights Watch said Thursday that Israel has killed thousands of Palestinians in Gaza by depriving them of clean water, which it says legally amounts to acts of genocide and genocide.
“This policy, implemented as part of the mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, means that the Israeli authorities have committed genocide against humanity, a continuing crime. This policy also amounts to an ‘act of genocide’ under the 1948 Genocide Convention.” “. Human Rights Watch said in its report.
Israel has repeatedly rejected any accusation of genocide, saying it respects international law and has the right to defend itself after the Hamas-led cross-border attack from Gaza on October 7, 2023 that precipitated the war.
In a statement on X, the Israeli Foreign Ministry wrote: “The truth is the exact opposite of Human Rights Watch’s lies.”
The statement said: “Since the beginning of the war, Israel has facilitated the continuous flow of water and humanitarian aid into Gaza, despite operating in light of ongoing attacks launched by the Hamas terrorist organization.”
Although the report described water deprivation as an act of genocide, it noted that proving the crime of genocide against Israeli officials also required proof of their intent. She cited statements by some senior Israeli officials that she said indicated that they “want to destroy the Palestinians,” which means that water deprivation “may amount to the crime of genocide.”
“What we discovered is that the Israeli government is deliberately killing Palestinians in Gaza by depriving them of the water they need to survive,” Lama Fakih, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said at a press conference.
In its response, Israel said it had ensured the continued operation of the water infrastructure. She said international partners sent water tankers through Israeli crossings, including last week, and Israel also facilitated the entry of more than 1.2 million tons of humanitarian supplies into Gaza.
Human Rights Watch is the second major human rights organization in a month to use the word genocide to describe Israel's actions in Gaza, after Amnesty International issued a report concluding that Israel is committing genocide.
Both reports came just weeks after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. They deny these accusations.
The 1948 Genocide Convention, enacted in the wake of the mass killing of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, defines the crime of genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” .
The Israeli government has stopped piped water into Gaza, cut electricity and restricted fuel, meaning Gaza's water and sanitation facilities cannot be used, the 184-page Human Rights Watch report said.
As a result, Palestinians in Gaza have only had access to a few liters of water per day in many areas, far below the 15 liter threshold for survival, the group said.
Israel launched its air and ground war on Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli towns across the border 14 months ago, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli statistics.
The Israeli campaign led to the killing of more than 45,000 Palestinians, the displacement of most of the population of 2.3 million people, and the transformation of a large part of the coastal strip into rubble.
