THE United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that severe water shortages in the Gaza Strip have reached critical levels, with only one in 10 people currently able to access safe drinking water, a total of 90 per cent of the population.
The UNICEF official in Gaza, Rosalia Poulin, said on the organisation’s website that 600,000 people regained access to drinking water in November 2024, only to be cut off again.
UN agencies estimate that 1.8 million people, more than half of whom are children, are in urgent need of water, sanitation, and health assistance, stressing that the situation deteriorated further after the Israeli decision to cut off electricity to the Strip, disrupting vital desalination operations.
Earlier, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, condemned the Israeli authorities’ cutting off the electricity supply to the Gaza Strip.
She said in a statement posted on her account on X: ‘Genocide alert! Israel’s cutting of electricity to Gaza means no functioning desalination plants and therefore no clean water.’
On March 2, Hebrew media said Israel intends to start implementing an escalation plan against Gaza within a week, including cutting electricity and water, carrying out assassinations, re-deporting Palestinians from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip and resuming the war.
Israel stopped the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip last Sunday, amid local and human rights warnings that the Palestinians will return to famine.
Every morning, Raed Ridwan leaves his home early to secure a spot in a long queue of residents in the Sheikh Ridwan neighbourhood, all waiting to fill two jerrycans with drinking water.
Ridwan, 35, says the drinking water crisis has persisted since he returned from displacement camps in southern Gaza.
However, the situation worsened when Israeli authorities shut down the Kerem Shalom crossing, which had been the main entry point for humanitarian aid, including fuel.
He explains that the fuel shortage has made it difficult for desalination plants to operate efficiently, leading to increased demand from residents while the plants struggle to meet everyone’s needs.
Before the crisis escalated, Ridwan used to fill four jerrycans for drinking and cooking, but now the plant only allows two per person to ensure fair distribution, as municipal wells pump out only salty, undrinkable water.
He also points out that the municipality does not supply water consistently. ‘Their services don’t reach all neighbourhoods in Gaza City due to damaged infrastructure and the urgent need for repairs,’ he says.
This situation illustrates the dire living conditions in Gaza, where residents endure the burden of an Israeli blockade and punitive measures designed to push them to the brink, says Wael Al-Sayed.
Al-Sayed, who lives in a relatively low-lying area, says municipal water does not reach his home.
Instead, he and his neighbours rely on a nearby well, pooling money to buy fuel to power the pump.
He notes that the price of diesel on the black market has soared to around 50 shekels per litre, up from 25 shekels before the closure of the crossing and the suspension of fuel imports.
He now spends 200 shekels weekly to obtain 2,000 litres of water, which he uses for washing and bathing.
Yet his biggest concern is not just the struggle to access clean water, but also the rising level of wastewater in a sewage collection pool east of Sheikh Ridwan.
Located just metres from his home, the pool has reached the red warning level on the measurement gauge, raising fears of an imminent overflow.
The area is plagued by foul odours and swarms of mosquitoes.
During the ongoing war, Israeli forces have destroyed water sources in conflict zones, including bombing and blowing up key wells that provided thousands of families with daily-use water, rendering them inoperable.
Currently, residents rely on desalination plants established by international relief organisations for drinkable water.
However, they must wait in long lines, sometimes receiving no more than 100 litres per household, even in the best-case scenario.
In destroyed areas, water is delivered by specialised trucks that also endure long waits to refill.
The water is then distributed in small containers, tanks, and buckets, forcing people to ration their usage strictly.
Not all residents can access these desalination plants due to their distance and the lack of available transportation to carry water.
Many are forced to buy water from private companies that operate small-scale desalination facilities.
Abu Jameel Enshasi, a drinking water truck owner, says the closure of the Kerem Shalom crossing and the diesel shortage have made water distribution extremely difficult.
‘Our work depends entirely on diesel – for both running the trucks and obtaining purified water from the plants,’ he explains.
He is now forced to buy diesel from the black market at exorbitant prices.
Since fuel trucks were barred from entering Gaza on March 2, diesel costs have surged from 20 to 45 shekels per litre.
Consequently, the price of a 4,000-litre water truckload has risen from 280 to 400 shekels.
Enshasi predicts that if the blockade continues, the price of a cubic metre (1,000 litres) of drinking water could reach 125 shekels in the coming days.
In early March, the first phase of the 42-day ceasefire agreement in Gaza officially ended without Israel agreeing to enter the second phase and end the war.
Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu wants to extend the first phase of the exchange deal to release as many Israeli captives in Gaza as possible, without offering any compensation or completing the military and humanitarian obligations stipulated in the ceasefire agreement during the past period, to satisfy the extremists in his government.
Hamas rejects this, demanding that Israel abide by the agreement and calling on the mediators to immediately begin negotiations for the second phase, which includes an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and a complete cessation of the war.
The Hamas Movement called on the mediators and the international community to intervene immediately to ensure the Israeli withdrawal and resume negotiations for the second phase without further delay.
In a statement issued on Monday, Hamas condemned Israel for violating the terms of the ceasefire and maintaining its troops along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, stating they should have withdrawn under the terms of the deal.
‘The Israeli occupation did not abide by the gradual reduction of its forces in the Salaheddin axis during the first phase’ of the truce which began on January 19, Hamas said.
It added that Israel ‘did not begin its withdrawal on the 42nd day as stipulated in the agreement,’ and had not completed it ‘by the 50th day of the agreement, which was Sunday’.
In its statement, the Movement said that Israel’s ‘failure to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor’ was a ‘blatant violation’ of the ceasefire agreement ‘and a deliberate attempt to undermine and nullify it’.
Hamas called on mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States, to intervene and ensure that Israel withdraws its forces.
‘We demand that the mediators and the international community intervene immediately to ensure the occupation’s withdrawal and the resumption of the second-phase negotiations without delay,’ the Movement said.
Hamas spokesman Abdul-Latif al-Qanu said his Movement dealt flexibly with the efforts of the mediators and the US envoy, and was now awaiting the results of the upcoming negotiations in Doha.
Spokesman Qanu added that Hamas expects the Israeli occupation government to abide by the ceasefire agreement and proceed to its next phase.
Qanu affirmed that the talks with the Egyptian and Qatari mediators and the US president’s envoy focused on ending the war, Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, and reconstruction.
‘We have fully implemented the first phase of the agreement, and our priorities now include providing our people with shelter and aid and ensuring a permanent ceasefire.’