A new report Thursday from New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch, or HRW, has accused Israel of committing genocide for intentionally depriving civilians in Gaza of an adequate water supply, likely resulting in the deaths of thousands.
The 179-page report published on the group’s website outlines how, since the war between Israel and the militant group Hamas began in October 2023, Israeli authorities and forces cut off and later restricted piped water to Gaza, as well as cutting electricity and restricting fuel, rendering most of the enclave’s sanitation infrastructure useless.
Additionally, the report said Israel deliberately destroyed and damaged water and sanitation infrastructure and water repair materials; and blocked the entry of critical water supplies.
In a statement, HRW Executive Director Tirana Hassan accused Israel of deliberately depriving Palestinians of an element essential for human life for more than a year.
“This isn’t just negligence,” Hassan said. “It is a calculated policy of deprivation that has led to the deaths of thousands from dehydration and disease that is nothing short of the crime against humanity of extermination, and an act of genocide.”
Israel emphatically denied the charges. In a statement, Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories agency, COGAT, called HRW’s charges a “libelous claim,” and “an egregious lie.”
The COGAT statement said millions of liters of water flow into Gaza through three pipelines, and Israel has “facilitated hundreds of water infrastructure repairs and fixed water lines leading to Gaza on the Israeli side that were damaged by Hamas.”
“We operate in accordance with international law,” the COGAT statement said. ”Saying otherwise is just flagrant deceit,” the statement said.
Earlier Thursday, medics in Gaza reported Israeli airstrikes overnight killed at least 13 people in northern and central parts of the Gaza Strip.
The strikes came as mediators worked to try to secure a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that would include the release of hostages still held in Gaza.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said late Wednesday that he is “hopeful” an agreement can be reached and pledged to spend all the time left in the waning days of the Biden administration to try to make a deal happen.
“It should happen. It needs to happen. We need to get people home,” Blinken said during an event at the Council on Foreign Relations. “We need to get the ceasefire. We need to get people moving in a different direction, toward better lives, toward repairing the terrible damage that’s been done.”
Blinken said Hamas has been the “main impediment” to a ceasefire deal, but that he thinks Hamas leaders understand at this point that their supporters such as Hezbollah and Iran are “not coming to the rescue.”
CIA Director William Burns landed in Qatar on Wednesday for meetings with Qatari officials, the latest in what has been months of work by the United States, Qatar and Egypt to try to broker an agreement.
Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, expressed hope about achieving a deal as he spoke to reporters Wednesday.
“After many rejections by Hamas, we hope we’re going to have some news before the holiday of Hanukkah and Christmas,” Danon said.
Still, Danon cautioned that in the past, Hamas has made last-minute demands that had thwarted other possible agreements, while the militants have in turn blamed Israel for the monthslong stalemate in reaching a halt to the warfare.
New possible terms of a ceasefire and hostage release seemed in flux.
“We hope it will be in one stage” with the release of all hostages, Danon said, “because we want to see all the hostages back home.”
He added, though, “Maybe it will not be in one stage. And basically, it will be similar to what we saw in the past more than a year ago — that you have a ceasefire, a long one, and at the same time of the ceasefire, during that ceasefire, hostages will be released. And we are talking mainly on the humanitarian aspect of women and the sick and the older hostages.”
Months of talks have proven fruitless in halting the fighting triggered by the shock Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people and led to the capture of 250 hostages.
Gaza health officials say Israel’s counteroffensive has killed at least 45,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, while Israel says the death toll includes thousands of Hamas combatants.
Hamas has been designated as a terror group by the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and others.
VOA’s United Nations correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
