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• ‘Cutting off drinking water to the population is equivalent to dropping a terrible silent bomb on them ... silent but lethal,’ UN special rapporteur Pedro Arrojo-Agudo tells Anadolu
• ‘This is not just in Gaza. Water is a key element of the war strategy and occupation strategy of Israel across the Palestinian territories,’ says Arrojo-Agudo
• Israel’s genocide in Gaza will be ‘a reference for the whole history of humanity as a disaster without any precedent,’ says UN rapporteur

ISTANBUL 

Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s water infrastructure and the denial of access to clean water for Palestinians amid its ongoing war is creating a mounting humanitarian catastrophe, a UN expert has warned, describing the worsening situation as a “silent but lethal bomb.”

“Cutting off drinking water to the population is equivalent to dropping a terrible silent bomb on them ... silent but lethal,” Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, said in an interview with Anadolu.

Outlining the critical water crisis facing the 2.1 million Palestinians trapped in Gaza, he said nearly 70% of the enclave’s water infrastructure had been destroyed by Israeli forces, leaving almost all of the population with either minimal access to water or water that is dangerously contaminated.

With Israel enforcing a near-total blockade on food, water, electricity, and other essentials since October 2023 and denying fuel needed to operate desalination plants and wells, Arrojo-Agudo warned that the crisis is spiraling out of control.

He said Israel’s deliberate destruction of water systems amounts to using water as a weapon.

“Water is being used as a weapon, but not against another army or militia, but against the population,” he said.

“In fact, this is not just in Gaza. Water is a key element of the war strategy and occupation strategy of Israel across the Palestinian territories.”

According to Arrojo-Agudo, Israel’s attacks on Gaza’s water infrastructure have reduced per capita water access to just five liters a day. “A person needs no less than 100 liters per day for a normal dignified life,” he said.

But even that limited supply, he warned, is mostly undrinkable.

“The most serious problem is that much of this scarce water available … is not drinkable due to salinity and fecal contamination,” he said.

The lack of potable water has already triggered a sharp rise in illness, particularly among children.

Citing UNICEF data, Arrojo-Agudo said that cases of diarrhea in children under the age of five jumped from 40,000 to more than 70,000 in just one week in early December 2024.

The threat of epidemics such as dysentery and cholera is intensifying, he warned, while high salt levels in the water are also causing kidney failure and widespread dehydration.  

Sanitation disaster

The crisis created by Israel goes beyond drinking water, with sanitation services also collapsing, compounding the risk of disease.

Even before the war, Israel’s 15-year blockade had prevented Gaza from importing 70% of the materials needed to build or maintain wastewater treatment plants, according to the UN rapporteur.

“This blockade led to progressive fecal contamination of the groundwater even before the war,” Arrojo-Agudo said.

“After the outbreak of war, most infrastructure facilities were bombed and destroyed. But even without bombing, cutting electricity prevents the few functioning plants from operating.”

With sewage systems out of service, raw wastewater now flows directly into the aquifer, contaminating the last remaining underground water reserves.

Arrojo-Agudo shared more disturbing statistics about the sanitation and hygiene crisis: “There is only one shower for every 4,500 people, and one toilet for every 220 people.”

Open defecation is now widespread, and women face dire conditions during menstruation. “There is no possibility of basic hygiene for a dignified life,” he said.  

‘Disaster without any precedent’

The UN rapporteur was clear that Israel’s destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure in Gaza is not accidental.

Soon after the war began, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli officials declared publicly that they would cut off water, food, and medicine to the population, and they have “fulfilled what they announced,” Arrojo-Agudo said.

Gaza’s coastal aquifer is its only source of freshwater, and before the war, its 2.2 million inhabitants were forced to pump three times more water than the natural aquifer could recharge, leading to intense salinization by seawater intrusion, he explained.

He added that in the occupied West Bank, Israel has appropriated 89% of the water from the mountain aquifer, even though only 20% of it originates in Israeli territory.

Israel has also completely diverted the flow of the Jordan River through its national water carrier and prohibits Palestinians from even approaching its banks, he continued.

A significant portion of this water goes to the Negev Desert to irrigate cotton for export, the official said.

In its 2008-2009 bombardment of Gaza, Israel destroyed nearly 1,000 water wells and 243 water pumping facilities, he added.

But Arrojo-Agudo said the current assault is without precedent. “This is not a strategy to win a war against Hamas,” he said. “This is effectively a weapon, but against the population.”

While water has been used as a weapon in other conflicts, the difference is that people could move away as refugees, which is not an option for the millions trapped in Gaza, said Arrojo-Agudo.

“This is like a huge prison, in which people are forced to go here and there and then bombed, so there is no precedent,” he said.

“This will be, unfortunately, a reference for the whole history of humanity as a disaster without any precedent.”  

‘Stop the illegal occupation’

For any respite for Palestinians, Arrojo-Agudo emphasized, the first step must be a ceasefire, followed by immediate humanitarian access.

“It is necessary not just to end the war in Gaza – this aggression, this genocide – but also to stop the illegal occupation,” he said.

Humanitarian corridors must be opened to allow the entry of fuel, water, and medical supplies, he reiterated.

He also called on the international community to demand compliance with international humanitarian law and to hold Israel accountable.

The political will to resolve this is lacking, particularly from Netanyahu’s government, who want “ethnic cleansing of the territories and expulsion of the Palestinians from their lands,” he said.

“The solutions are very clear. The problem is political will,” he emphasized.