By denying Palestinians safe water, Israel has created an unparalleled health crisis and risks causing irreversible ecological damage.

Denying water to Gaza has been a key tactic of the war from the very beginning, with Israel shutting off the pipes supplying the enclave on October 7. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced that Israel was “imposing a complete siege on Gaza. No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly.”

At the end of October, an internal U.S. State Department report expressed concern that 52,000 pregnant women and over 30,000 babies under the age of six months were being forced to drink a potentially lethal mix of water polluted with sewage and salt from the sea. Since then, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been severely weakened by rampant hunger and disease, as well as the physical wounds inflicted on nearly 60,000 people and the mental stress of ceaseless bombardment that has taken more than 23,500 lives. All of this renders Palestinians in Gaza even more vulnerable to water-borne illnesses.

By the end of December, as WHO reported, the more than 1 million displaced Palestinians sheltering in the southern city of Rafah had access to, on average, one toilet for every 486 people, while across Gaza one shower served an average of 4,500 people. Sewage flows through the streets and contaminates the hastily erected tents in which hundreds of thousands of people now live throughout southern and central Gaza. Those who are menstruating face intense hardship, with menstrual products, toilets, and water all in direly short supply. 

  • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3912·
    11 months ago

    Look this is just an aside but I want to suggest a blanket moratorium on the use of the following language:

    “Something-gate”

    If the thing did not occur at the Watergate hotel, or is actually not a gate, please refrain.

    “Slam/ Slams/ Slamed”

    Unless something or someone actually hit the ground with a thunk, retweeting Ted Cruz to all the people who already agree with you is not ‘slamming’ any one. See here for an example of some one getting slammed.

    “something is now a weapon of mass destruction”

    Look we’ve had enough issues around the use of this term incorrectly. Is what Israel doing a war-crime? Yes. Is it a genocide? Yes. Is it a weapon of mass destruction? No. No it is not. Thats the bombs they are dropping. Its those. Those are the weapons of mass destruction.

    The laziness of journalists is just sometimes… shocking.

    • wrath_of_grunge@kbin.social
      15·
      11 months ago

      Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for fuckoffs and misfits—a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage. - Hunter Thompson (journalist)

    • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.worldEnglish
      143·
      11 months ago

      Would you say you want to fustigate any editor or surrogate who treats the -gate suffix as obligate as they congregate to promulgate articles that castigate and instigate when they should mitigate or even derogate their profligate use of -gate?

    • rockSlayer@lemmy.worldEnglish
      103·
      11 months ago

      Generally, it’s not the journalist deciding the headline. Usually it’s some stripe of editor

      • Boingboing@lemmy.worldEnglish
        63·
        11 months ago

        This. So tired of having a discussion and some wise ass comes in and says oh I cant stand headlines with this word. So? Why share with the class? It adds nothing to the discussion besides letting the person stamp their feet in indignation while at the same time adding nothing of any value whatsoever. Congratulations. You shared an opinion that offers nothing but smug self glorification.

        • SwallowsDick@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          11 months ago

          But this isn’t a real life discussion with limited space or bandwidth. It’s a forum with potentially infinite comments, and you can scroll as quickly as you want

        • beetus@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          11 months ago

          Your comment is doing the same (and so is mine).

          Why complain, just scroll past?

  • Doorbook@lemmy.worldEnglish
    183·
    11 months ago

    People who get enraged by the language of the article instead of the actual genocide going on should reconsider their life…

  • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    106·
    11 months ago

    They could just lay small tubes with water to pump it over the border if they were scared of weapons but who knows how many Khamassss navy seals could be smuggled through a small tube.

    Oh wait there’s already water pipes israel just shut them off.

    Denying water to Gaza has been a key tactic of the war from the very beginning, with Israel shutting off the pipes supplying the enclave on October 7.

    • Keeponstalin@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      32·
      10 months ago

      What? This is a continuation of a long-standing Israeli policy

      The deprivation of water and the destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure have long been part of the Israeli effort, in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, “to make the daily process of living, and dignified living, more difficult for the civilian population,” as a UN Fact Finding Mission stated in 2009.

      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.

  • speaker_hat@lemmy.oneEnglish
    26·
    10 months ago

    But Gaza is a Palestinian “sovereignty”, Israel is not responsible for their requirements (i.e. water, food, electricity, fuel…), it’s their governance responsibility, Hamas.

    Why don’t Hamas supplied water, food, electricity and fuel to their people the Palestinians?

    • Keeponstalin@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      53·
      11 months ago

      That article is about UNICEF operations providing water thru aid (such as aid trucks) which is also impeded by Israel by bombings and targeting of Palestinians trying to get that aid

      In 1967, Israel seized control of all water resources in the newly occupied territories. To this day, it retains exclusive control over all the water resources that lie between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, with the exception of a short section of the coastal aquifer that runs under the Gaza Strip. Israel uses the water as it sees fit, ignoring the needs of Palestinians in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip to such an extent that both areas suffer from a severe water shortage. In each of them, residents are not supplied enough water; in Gaza, even the water that is supplied is substandard and unfit for drinking.

      Israel has been holding the Gaza Strip under blockade for more than a decade, since June 2007. It does not allow any materials in that it considers “dual purpose”, i.e., that can be used for either civilian or military purposes. This includes construction materials, such as cement and iron, and other raw materials. All these are needed to repair Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure, which were heavily damaged by Israeli bombings, especially in Operation Cast Lead (which began in late 2008) and Operation Protective Edge (the summer of 2014). The estimated damage amounts to some 34 million dollars. As of the end of 2015, more than 100,000 Palestinians in Gaza were still cut off from the public water network.

      https://www.btselem.org/water

      Infographic on how Israel controls water in OPT pre Oct 7

    • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldEnglish
      76·
      11 months ago

      It’s pretty sad the only rebuttal that you Zionists have left these days is straight up lie about what is in the article and hope nobody actually reads it.

  • Tedesche@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1046·
    11 months ago

    Christ, these headlines. What Israel is doing is abominable, but it’s nothing new. These are siege tactics and they’re practically as old as war itself.

    • Keeponstalin@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      424·
      11 months ago

      The coveting of water of the occupied territories is nothing new, true. But unlike most sieges, this is done by an occupying power that has had total control over the food, water, electricity, borders, movement, aid, imports, and exports of the occupied territories for decades.

      • Tedesche@lemmy.worldEnglish
        627·
        11 months ago

        I agree the context makes the entire existence of a siege unusual here, I’m just pointing out that water and food deprivation have been used as tools of war for forever. The language used in the article—the “weaponization of water”—is meant to put a shiny new coat of paint on something ancient and make people think this is some new diabolical tactic Israel has invented on its own and that no one prior to them was barbaric enough to think of it. That’s what’s garbage journalism here.

        Again, not defending Israel, just trying to point out sensationalist manipulative tactics on the part of this media outlet.

        • Doorbook@lemmy.worldEnglish
          52·
          11 months ago

          Maybe, just maybe, the international community have agreed on not following ancient tactics in war anymore since they are, Ancient?

          • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldEnglish
            24·
            11 months ago

            Are you suggesting genocide is not a legitimate method of warfare? I hear Hitler did it before so it should be fine right?

    • Deebster@fedia.io
      181·
      11 months ago

      International humanitarian law protects water as an indispensable resource for civilians during armed conflicts. Israel ratified the Geneva Conventions in 1951.

      Rape, slavery and plundering are also as old as war itself, but we don’t accept those either.

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social
      164·
      11 months ago

      It’s different because Gaza isn’t an independent state; it’s an occupied territory. They can’t get water on their own.

    • vind@lemmy.worldEnglish
      486·
      11 months ago

      Israel does something bad: “oh HAMAS FORCED THEM TO”

      • sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        738·
        11 months ago

        I’m just super fucking tired of the one-sided narrative on here. It’s fucking bizarre when talking about a dumb ass religious conflict between two assholes.

            • ghostdoggtv@lemmy.worldEnglish
              74·
              11 months ago

              Russia’s genocide of Ukraine is not proportionally as steep as Israel’s genocide of Palestineans in Gaza, but it’s the second time they try it in 100 years and it only caused them to collapse the last time, and they’re lying about their victims to try to frame them as the oppressors just like the Likud do in Israel with their lies about all Palestineans supporting and cheering for atrocities committed by Hamas. Sic semper tyrannis.

              I am 97.5% sure that the name “Crossfire Hurricane” was a reference to a Russian-Israeli set of active measures involving the late Epstein-Maxwell spy ring that was designed to strip moral authority over stateless people (as settled after world war 2) from western powers. But Jeff Epstein and Jean-Luc Brunel (the dude from the Israel Army hat photo) were both allowed to commit suicide in custody, the Crossfire Hurricane dossier was last seen (of record) going home with Mark Meadows according to Cassidy Hutchinson and the DOJ have signaled that they aren’t going to move on the Republican mafia any time soon.

    • EndlessApollo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      418·
      11 months ago

      Yep, it’s Hamas’s fault that Israel is committing genocide and stealing their land, definitely wasn’t happening before. Go fuck yourself zionist bitch 💖

    • Keeponstalin@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      315·
      11 months ago

      What? This is a continuation of a long-standing Israeli policy

      The deprivation of water and the destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure have long been part of the Israeli effort, in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, “to make the daily process of living, and dignified living, more difficult for the civilian population,” as a UN Fact Finding Mission stated in 2009.

      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.

      • sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        520·
        11 months ago

        Israel are assholes and the international community should have come along a long fucking time ago to address the bullshit settlement stuff. Absolute bellends. But you know, my god is better than yours, so fuck right off, amiright?

        • Keeponstalin@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          295·
          11 months ago

          There are certainly religious aspects, but this is first and foremost a settler colonialist land grab Totally agree with the rest of your statement tho

          “…the takeover of the West Bank in particular, with its ancient biblical sights, was a Zionist aim even before 1948 and it fitted the logic of the Zionist project as a whole. This logic can be summarized as the wish to take over as much of Palestine as possible with as few Palestinians as possible… After the occupation, the new ruler confined the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in an impossible limbo: they were neither refugees nor citizens—they were, and still are, citizenless inhabitants. They were inmates, and in many respects still are, of a huge prison in which they have no civil, and human rights and no impact on their future. The world tolerates this situation because Israel claims —and the claim was never challenged until recently—that the situation is temporary…Israel is still incarcerating a third generation of Palestinians…and depicting these mega-prisons as temporary…”

          • Municipal0379@lemmy.worldEnglish
            325·
            11 months ago

            Lolololololol. I’m definitely left of center and even I know “colonialist land grab” is bs. Israel has plenty of problems. Calling this a “colonialist land grab” isn’t on their list of fuck ups.

            • ghostdoggtv@lemmy.worldEnglish
              163·
              11 months ago

              If you can’t see how Zionist Israel’s ethnic cleansing is motivated by white settler colonialism then your lefty card is probably just a cardboard circle from all the corners you’ve cut off it.