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Human Rights Watch 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 Published on Thursday, the New York-based watchdog said that since October 2023, when Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza, Israeli authorities have “deliberately obstructed Palestinians’ access to the adequate amount of water needed to survive.” in the Gaza Strip.”
“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.
The 184-page study describes how the Israeli government cut off the water supply coming to Gaza from Israel, cut off the electricity supply needed to operate the water pumps, and blocked and restricted the fuel needed to run the generators in the absence of electricity. .
It also prevented United Nations agencies and humanitarian aid organizations from delivering water-related materials and other humanitarian aid.
Satellite images analyzed by the organization found extensive damage and destruction to water and sanitation infrastructure, including the “apparently deliberate and systematic demolition of the solar panels that power four of Gaza’s six wastewater treatment plants by the Israeli ground forces, as well as Israeli soldiers filming themselves demolishing a key water reservoir.”
As a result, Palestinians in Gaza had access to only a few liters of water a day in many areas, well below the 15-liter threshold for survival. A large number of the more than 2.3 million people living in Gaza were deprived of access “to even the smallest amount of water, which has contributed to death and the spread of disease.”
This policy amounts to “acts of genocide” under the 1948 Genocide Convention, he concluded. “Israeli authorities intentionally imposed on the Palestinian population of Gaza ‘living conditions calculated to bring about their total or partial physical destruction.’”
Israel rejects findings
Israel has repeatedly rejected any accusations of genocide, saying it has the right to defend itself following the Hamas-led attack from Gaza on October 7, 2023.
On Thursday he rejected the HRW report, calling its conclusions “appalling lies.”
To prove the crime of genocide against Israeli officials before international courts it is also necessary to establish the intention to commit this crime.
The 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 report cited statements by some senior Israeli officials that it said suggested they “want to destroy the Palestinians,” meaning that water deprivation “may 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 that Israel is violating the Genocide Convention.
The court required Israel to allow 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 impose “targeted sanctions, suspension of arms transfers and military assistance, and review of bilateral trade and political agreements” to pressure Israel to comply with the ICJ’s provisional measures. .
The report follows another Amnesty International study published earlier this month that also concluded that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide.
Last month, the International Criminal Court (ICC) 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 has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the population and reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins.
