Doctors Without Borders accuses Israel of using water access as 'weapon' in Gaza

GENEVA (AFP) — Israeli authorities are systematically depriving people in Gaza of the water they need to live, Doctors Without Borders warned Tuesday, decrying a campaign of “collective punishment” against Palestinians.

The extensive destruction of civilian water infrastructure in Gaza coupled with obstruction of access constitutes “an integral part of Israel’s genocide,” said the medical charity, which goes by its French acronym MSF.

In a report entitled “Water as a Weapon,” the NGO said the “engineered scarcity” was occurring alongside “direct killing of civilians, the devastation of health facilities, (and) the destruction of homes.”

Together, this amounted to “the deliberate infliction of destructive and inhumane conditions of life on the Palestinian population in Gaza,” warned the report, based on testimonies and data collected in 2024 and 2025.

“Israeli authorities know that without water, life ends,” Doctors Without Borders emergency manager Claire San Filippo said in a statement. “Yet they have deliberately and systematically obliterated water infrastructure in Gaza, whilst consistently blocking water-related supplies from entering.”

Despite an October ceasefire that largely halted the Gaza war that began after Hamas’ 2023 attack on Israel, the territory remains gripped by daily violence as Israeli strikes continue and both the Israeli military and Hamas accuse each other of breaking the truce.

‘Engineered’ scarcity

The report, which was slammed by Israel, pointed to data from the United Nations, European Union and World Bank indicating that Israel had destroyed or damaged nearly 90% of water and sanitation infrastructure in Gaza.

“Desalination plants, boreholes, pipelines and sewage systems have been rendered inoperable or inaccessible,” the group said.

The charity documented several incidents where its clearly identified water trucks and boreholes had been shot at or destroyed.

“Palestinians have been injured and killed simply trying to access water,” San Filippo said.

The charity said that besides the local authorities, it was the largest producer and main distributor of drinking water in Gaza.

Last month, it provided more than 1.4 million gallons of water each day, which meets the minimum needs of more than 407,000 people, or a fifth of Gaza’s population.

However, throughout the war, “Israeli military displacement orders have locked our teams out of areas where we had provided water to hundreds of thousands of people,” the MSF statement said.

‘Perfect storm’

The charity said a third of its requests to bring in critical water and sanitation supplies, including water desalination units, pumps, water tanks, insect repellent, chlorine and other chemicals to treat water, had “been rejected or left unanswered.”

San Filippo also cautioned that the deprivation of water, “combined with dire living conditions, extreme overcrowding, and a collapsed health system, create a perfect storm for the spread of diseases.”

Doctors Without Borders called on Israel to “immediately restore water for people at the required levels in Gaza.”

It urged Israel’s allies to “use their leverage to pressure Israel to stop impeding humanitarian access.”

COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry body in charge of Palestinian civilian affairs, harshly criticized “the baseless claims” presented in the report.

It maintained in a statement that “water supply in Gaza consistently exceeds humanitarian thresholds,” insisting that “far from ‘preventing’ access, Israel facilitates and provides water from its own sources.”

Doctors Without Borders’ “operational delays” were a result of the organization’s “refusal to follow standard registration protocols and their history of employing individuals linked to terror,” COGAT charged.

Contacted by AFP, MSF did not wish to react to Israel’s accusations.

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By ALEXANDRE GROSBOIS Agence France-Presse