“Past Israeli military operations in both of these occupied territories have also led to the destruction of water resources. And for decades, Israel has used water grabbing to dispossess Palestinians of their land and ways of life — impeding Palestinian agriculture in the West Bank and for Palestinians inside Israel. But Israel’s weaponization of water within the framework of its current offensive on the Gaza Strip is on an entirely different scale, with the capacity to cause an unparalleled public health crisis and irreversible ecological damage.”
In Gaza, Israel has turned water into a weapon of mass destruction
This article was written by Nancy Murray, PhD, has taught in universities and worked on human rights issues in the UK and Kenya as well as in the US, where for 25 years she was Director of Education at the ACLU of Massachusetts. She has been an activist for peace with justice in the Middle East since 1988 when she paid her first visit to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and is a member of the Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine.
Amahl Bishara is associate professor of anthropology at Tufts University. She is author of "Crossing a Line: Laws, Violence, and Roadblocks to Palestinian Political Expression" and "Back Stories: US News Production and Palestinian Politics". She has been part of collaborative research teams and activist initiatives addressing water scarcity in a West Bank refugee camp.
Palestinians at an UNRWA camp in Rafah after heavy rainfall, in the southern Gaza Strip, November 14, 2023. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)