Israel once again cut electricity to Gaza on Sunday, taking offline a desalination plant that provided water to 600,000.
by Sharon Zhang, reposted from Truthout
Only 1 in 10 people in Gaza have access to safe drinking water after Israel once again cut electricity to the besieged strip on Sunday, plunging the region back into the darkest periods of Israel’s genocide, UN officials have said.
UNICEF reported on Monday that water levels are “critical,” with Gaza facing a “severe water shortage” after Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said he had “cut off electricity to the Gaza Strip immediately” on social media.
The power cut has affected a crucial water desalination plant that had been brought back online in central Gaza in November which had provided water to 600,000 people.
Those people are now once again cut off from access to water, and the UN estimates that 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza are in urgent need of water, sanitation and hygiene aid. Water is crucial not just for drinking, but also for making food, including baby formula, and purposes like toilet flushing.
“It’s really vital for thousands of families and children to restore this connection,” said Rosalia Bollen, a UNICEF spokesperson in Gaza.
The move comes as Israel has been blocking all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza for 10 days now, the UN has reported. “Nothing. I mean there’s been no goods coming in, no trucks coming in,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said of the situation on Monday.
Gaza’s population is already weakened after nearly a year and a half of Israel’s siege and humanitarian catastrophe in the region.
This has made it so that the humanitarian situation is now “similar to the one which prevailed in October 2023,” UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees head Philippe Lazzarini said in a press conference on Monday.
Human rights groups and experts say that Israel is using humanitarian aid as a weapon, including basic supplies like food and water, in violation of international humanitarian law.
“Whatever the intent is, it’s clearly a weaponization of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” Lazzarini said. “We have seen the situation is deteriorating very, very quickly.”
Israel is likely trying to pressure Hamas officials into accepting last-minute changes to the ceasefire agreement that Hamas has previously rejected. Israel has refused to continue on to the second phase of the ceasefire, which would mark the beginning of a permanent end to Israel’s assault on Gaza. Hamas officials have indicated their willingness to enter the second phase.
Palestinians and advocates have said that Israel is openly sabotaging the ceasefire agreement — despite having not secured the release of the remaining Israeli captives in Gaza — in order to lay the groundwork for more violence and destruction of the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian officials reported last week that Israel has committed at least 962 violations of the ceasefire deal since it went into effect in January, for an average of 23 violations a day. This includes Israel’s killings of at least 116 Palestinians and wounding of at least 490 others amid the supposed ceasefire.
Sharon Zhang is a news writer at Truthout covering politics, climate and labor.
