HRW says Israel committing ‘act of genocide’ by cutting off water to Gaza Israel-Palestine conflict news
Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of committing “acts of genocide” by denying clean water to Palestinians in Gaza, and called on the international community to impose targeted sanctions.
In a new report released on Thursday, the New York-based watchdog said that from October 2023 – when Israel launched its military offensive into Gaza – Israeli authorities “will restrict Palestinians’ access to the substantial amounts of water needed to survive in Gaza.” Deliberately disrupted.” strip”.
“We have found 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 of Human Rights Watch, told a news conference.
The 184-page study details how the Israeli government cut off piped water supplies from Israel to Gaza, cut off the supply of electricity needed to operate water pumps, and caused electricity shortages. Blocked and restricted the fuel needed to run generators.
It also prevented UN agencies and humanitarian aid organizations from delivering water-related supplies and other humanitarian aid.
Satellite imagery analyzed by the organization found widespread damage and destruction to water and sanitation infrastructure, including “the apparent deliberate destruction of solar panels powering four of Gaza’s six wastewater treatment plants by Israeli ground forces, Systematic destruction, as well as videotaping Israeli soldiers demolishing themselves.” A major water reservoir”.
As a result, Palestinians in Gaza have access to only a few liters of water per day in many areas, far below the 15-litre limit required for survival. A large number of the more than 2.3 million people living in Gaza were “denied access to even minimal amounts of water, which has contributed to deaths and widespread disease”.
This policy amounts to “acts of genocide” under the 1948 Genocide Convention, it concluded. “The Israeli authorities deliberately imposed on the Palestinian population in Gaza ‘conditions of life designed to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.'”
Israel rejected the findings
Israel has repeatedly rejected any allegations of genocide and says it has the right to defend itself after the Hamas-led attack from Gaza on October 7, 2023.
On Thursday it rejected the HRW report, calling its findings “appalling lies”.
Proving the crime of genocide against Israeli officials before international courts also requires establishing intent to commit this crime.
The Genocide Convention, enacted after the mass murder of Jews in the Nazi genocide, 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 report cites statements by some senior Israeli officials saying they “want to destroy the Palestinians” meaning that depriving them of water “could amount to the crime of genocide”.
It also argued that Israel violated provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in January, as part of a case brought by South Africa alleging Israel was violating the Genocide Convention.
The court demanded Israel to enable the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance to demonstrate that it has no genocidal intent.
In light of its findings, HRW called on the international community to issue “targeted sanctions, suspension of arms transfers and military aid, and review of bilateral trade and political agreements” to pressure Israel to comply with the ICJ’s provisional measures. Called for.
The report follows another study released earlier this month by Amnesty International which concluded that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) last month issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense chief for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Israel’s war killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, displaced much of the population, and left much of the coastal region in ruins.
