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By Stephanie van den Berg
THE HAGUE – Human Rights Watch said Thursday that Israel has killed thousands of Palestinians in Gaza by denying them clean water, which it says legally amounts to acts of genocide and extermination.
“This policy, inflicted as part of a mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, means that the Israeli authorities have committed the crime against humanity of extermination, which continues. “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 accusations of genocide, saying it has respected 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 about X, Israel’s Foreign Ministry wrote: “The truth is the complete opposite of HRW’s lies.”
“Since the beginning of the war, Israel has facilitated the continuous flow of water and humanitarian aid to Gaza, despite operating under constant attacks from the terrorist organization Hamas,” the statement said.
Although the report described water deprivation as an act of genocide, it noted that proving the crime of genocide against Israeli officials would also require establishing intent. He cited statements by some senior Israeli officials that he said suggested they “want to destroy the Palestinians,” meaning that water deprivation “may amount to the crime of genocide.”
“What we have discovered is that the Israeli government is intentionally killing Palestinians in Gaza by denying them the water they need to survive,” Lama Fakih, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said at a news conference.
In its response, Israel said it had ensured that water infrastructure remained operational. He said international partners had sent water tankers through Israeli crossings, including last week, and Israel had facilitated the entry of more than 1.2 million tons of humanitarian supplies into Gaza.
Human Rights Watch is the second major human rights group in a month to use the word genocide to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza, after Amnesty International issued a report concluding that Israel was 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 chief for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. They deny the accusations.
The 1948 Genocide Convention, enacted following the mass murder of Jews during the Nazi Holocaust, defines the crime of genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.” “. .
The 184-page Human Rights Watch report said the Israeli government stopped water supplies to Gaza and cut electricity and restricted fuel, meaning Gaza’s own water and sanitation facilities could not be used.
As a result, Palestinians in Gaza had access to only a few liters of water a day in many areas, well below the survival threshold of 15 liters, the group said.
Israel launched its air and ground war in Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities across the border 14 months ago, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli counts.
Israel’s campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the 2.3 million inhabitants and reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins.
