Hungry, thirsty, and desperate for some relief, Sha’da Abu Jabal, 36, and her six-year-old son Ahmad headed to a water distribution point in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, July 13. Each carried a jerrycan, hoping to return to their displacement center with clean drinking water.
The mother and young son joined a long line of people waiting their turn, when suddenly the Israeli army bombed the distribution point, killing twelve people, including eight children, and injuring more than twenty others. Most of them were women and children, due to the fact that in Gaza, survival now divides families: men go out seeking food under bullets, and women and children go out seeking water.
Sha’da and her son miraculously survived the strike and quickly made their way back to the displacement center. They were spared from death, but were still without water. Like thousands of other families in Gaza, their struggle with intense thirst continued, due to severe water shortages as a result of Israel’s siege on the strip.
“We don’t know what exactly we’re supposed to face in this war,” Sha’da says. “Are we up against warplanes and death? Or hunger and starvation? Or thirst and the lack of water?”
“Israel has provided us with every possible path to death. We can no longer bear it. And if we adults can endure, how do we look at our children, watching them cry out in thirst when we can’t even give them a sip of water? What are we supposed to do to survive this war?”, she asked.
Israel is systematically destroying Gaza’s water infrastructure
Sunday’s attack on people lining up for water was not the first
attack by the Israeli army on hungry and thirsty civilians in Gaza.
Following the massacre, Gaza’s Government Media Office issued a detailed
statement indicating that the Israeli military has targeted 112 sites
distributing fresh water since the Israeli genocide began in 2023,
resulting in massacres of hundreds of civilians—mostly children—who were
trying to get drinking water.
The Gaza Strip’s water supply
depends on three primary sources: groundwater, water supplied directly
from Israel through the national water company (Mekorot), and central
desalination plants that belong to the Coastal Municipality Water
Utility in Gaza.
According to the statement, Israeli forces have deliberately destroyed 720 water wells, putting them out of service and depriving more than 1.25 million people of access to clean water. Israel has also blocked the entry of 12 million liters of fuel each month—fuel needed to run even the minimum number of water wells, sewage treatment plants, garbage collection vehicles, and other critical sectors related to water and sanitation.
Since January 23, 2025, Israel has also cut off Mekorot water, Gaza’s last main supply, deepening the daily thirst and misery for people in the strip. On March 9, 2025, Israel severed the last power line feeding the central desalination plant south of Deir al-Balah, halting the production of large amounts of drinking water and worsening the suffocating water crisis.
The Government Media Office concluded its statement by asserting that Gaza is now witnessing a “major crime of thirst”, which it says is being deliberately and systematically carried out by the Israeli occupation. It described the policy as a “full-fledged war crime” under the Geneva Conventions and a grave violation of international humanitarian and human rights law.
As a result of the policies pursued by Israel to target sources of food and water in the Gaza Strip, the available quantities of water are no longer sufficient for the population, with water sources becoming extremely scarce.
Muhammad Duweima, a father of six living in Gaza City, describes how he secures water for his family. “A man in our neighborhood owns a water well and has a solar power source. He operates the well for just one hour daily and distributes water to nearby residents,” he says. However, this water drawn from the well is unsuitable for drinking and is used only for washing and general domestic purposes.
Drinking water sources are extremely limited, mainly restricted to the water trucks sent in by charitable organizations operating in Gaza.
Duweima explains that “two trucks carrying fresh water come daily to the displacement center in the Tel Al-Hawa area, where residents fill their jerrycans. These trucks come every day. If they don’t show up, we have no drinking water until the following day.”
“Sometimes these trucks can’t come for two or three days, and during that time we suffer greatly from extreme thirst and cannot secure any water,” he said.
He adds that in some cases, they are forced to drink non-potable water drawn from wells. “This water is salty, not fresh, and causes us health problems like kidney stones, in addition to other issues related to bacteria and microbes in water that has not been properly treated or purified.”
Even those trucks dedicated to transporting fresh drinking water have become direct targets. On Monday, in central Gaza, Israeli drones targeted a large water tanker that was meant to distribute water to civilians. The drone strike destroyed the vehicle and killed its driver, indicating that these attacks are directed not only at water sources themselves but also at those working to deliver water to the people.
A war of thirst and hunger
Throughout Israel’s 22-month long genocide in Gaza, it has consistently attacked food and water supplies in Gaza, in addition to tightening its siege and preventing the entry of aid. Reporting and eyewitness accounts from the ground in Gaza have documented how the Israeli army has waged a clear, systematic starvation campaign against Gaza, blocking food from entering, targeting food distribution points, and even facilitating looting by groups that steal aid coming through the crossings.
On April 7, 2025, the Israeli army bombed a tent near Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza that housed volunteers and people in need waiting for food, killing at least six people and injuring ten others. Just days earlier, on April 1, Israeli forces targeted a convoy belonging to World Central Kitchen in Deir al-Balah, striking three vehicles as they transported food and relief supplies, killing seven of the organization’s volunteers.
According to previous reports from Gaza’s Government Media Office, the Israeli army has bombed more than 60 food distribution points and aid centers, forcing them to shut down entirely as part of this starvation policy. On November 30, 2025, the Israeli army targeted the founder of Gaza’s Soup Kitchen, killing him in his car as he was transporting food to a hospital for distribution. Around 170 community kitchens across Gaza also ceased operations in May and June 2025 due to food shortages caused by the ongoing blockade and continued prevention of food entry into the strip.
Regarding water sources, roughly three months ago, Israeli forces
bombed a water desalination plant east of Gaza City, cutting off about
70% of the water supplied by Israel’s Mekorot company and triggering a
severe thirst crisis among civilians. The army also targeted water and
sewage infrastructure, including tanks, wells, and desalination
facilities, leaving more than two million Palestinians in Gaza suffering
daily thirst.
Alongside these scattered and relentless attacks
across the Strip, more than 800 people in Gaza have been killed since
late May while trying to collect food aid from distribution centers run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).