Under the relentless August sun in central Gaza, families like Rana Odeh’s face a daily ordeal that’s become all too familiar: waiting in long lines, sometimes for hours, hoping to collect a jug or two of water. The liquid, often cloudy and tinged with the color of contamination, is all that stands between her children and thirst. "We are forced to give it to our children because we have no alternative," Odeh told the Associated Press, her voice heavy with resignation. "It causes diseases for us and our children."
Odeh’s story is emblematic of a much broader crisis gripping Gaza. After 22 months of continuous Israeli military operations, the territory’s water infrastructure has been battered, its aquifers polluted by sewage and the debris of war, and its population—over two million people—left to ration every drop. According to UNICEF, only 137 of Gaza’s 392 wells remain accessible, and the water they yield is often fouled by sewage and the rubble of shattered buildings. Water deliveries, when they come, are sporadic—sometimes every two or three days—and amount to less than three liters per person daily, a fraction of the 15 liters recommended for drinking, cooking, and basic hygiene.
The public health consequences are dire. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) reports that its clinics now see an average of 10,300 patients a week with infectious diseases, most commonly diarrhea linked to contaminated water. Acute watery diarrhea, a marker of waterborne illness, accounted for less than 20 percent of reported illnesses in February 2025. By July, that figure had surged to 44 percent, raising the specter of severe dehydration, especially among children.
“Untreated sewage mixes with drinking water, and you drink that or wash your food with it, then you’re drinking microbes and can get dysentery,” Mark Zeitoun, director general of the Geneva Water Hub, explained. “If you’re forced to drink salty, brackish water, it just does your kidneys in, and then you’re on dialysis for decades.”
In the displacement camps of Muwasi and elsewhere, the situation is compounded by an unforgiving heat wave. On August 15, 2025, temperatures soared to 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit), making the lack of clean water even more perilous. Mahmoud Al-Dibs, another resident displaced from Gaza City, described the daily struggle: "Outside the tents, it is hot, and inside the tents, it is hot, so we are forced to drink this water wherever we go." Like many, he knows the water is unsafe, but necessity trumps caution.
The roots of Gaza’s water crisis are tangled in the broader conflict. Since Israel launched its offensive nearly two years ago, limits on fuel imports and persistent electricity shortages have crippled desalination plants and water pumps. Infrastructure damage from airstrikes has destroyed pipelines and wells, and the residual effects of war have polluted the aquifers that once served as lifelines. Before the war, Gaza’s water came from a patchwork of sources: some piped in by Israel’s national water utility Mekorot, some from local desalination plants, and some drawn from wells. Now, with much of that infrastructure in ruins, Palestinians are forced to rely on whatever groundwater remains, even as its quality steadily declines.
Efforts to restore water access have yielded limited progress. In recent weeks, Israel has delivered water through two of Mekorot’s three pipelines and reconnected one desalination plant to Israel’s electricity grid, Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel confirmed to the Associated Press. Yet, Monther Shoblaq, who heads Gaza’s Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, says the plants are still producing far less than before the war, forcing impossible choices about where to send the limited supply. Hospitals and the general public are prioritized, sometimes at the expense of sewage treatment—a trade-off that increases the risk of neighborhood sewage backups and further health hazards.
Meanwhile, the political context remains as fraught as ever. On August 13, 2025, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israel’s i24NEWS channel that he “absolutely” subscribes to the vision of a “Greater Israel,” a concept that, as reported by Al Jazeera, refers to an expansionist vision claiming not only the occupied West Bank and Gaza but also parts of Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Jordan. Netanyahu affirmed, “Very much,” when asked if he felt connected to this vision. The remarks drew swift and severe condemnation from a coalition of 31 Arab and Islamic countries, including the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the Gulf Cooperation Council, who described Netanyahu’s statements as “a grave disregard for, and a blatant and dangerous violation of, the rules of international law and the foundations of stable international relations.” Their joint statement, issued August 15, 2025, warned that such rhetoric constitutes “a direct threat to Arab national security, to the sovereignty of states, and to regional and international peace and security.”
The coalition’s statement also condemned Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s August 14 announcement to approve thousands of housing units in a long-delayed settlement project in the occupied West Bank. Smotrich’s move, which he said “buries the idea of a Palestinian state,” was denounced as “a blatant violation of international law and a flagrant assault on the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to realise their independent, sovereign state on the lines of June 4, 1967, with Occupied Jerusalem as its capital.”
International legal bodies have weighed in as well. In September 2024, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling on Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian territories within 12 months. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s top court, found Israel’s presence in the Palestinian territories to be unlawful and, in January 2024, stated that Israel was “plausibly committing genocide.” The ICJ has yet to issue a final verdict in the case brought by South Africa.
The ongoing conflict has exacted a staggering human toll. According to the latest figures, at least 61,827 people have been killed and 155,275 wounded in Gaza since the offensive began. The war has also displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s population, with over 2.1 million people—many of them refugees from the 1948 Nakba—now living in precarious conditions.
Last week, Israel’s Security Cabinet approved Netanyahu’s plan to fully occupy Gaza City, and in his recent interview, Netanyahu revived calls to “allow” Palestinians to leave Gaza. “We are not pushing them out, but we are allowing them to leave,” he said. Many campaigners view this language as a euphemism for ethnic cleansing, a fear echoed by international observers who recall previous proposals to resettle Gazans outside the territory.
Arab and Islamic countries reiterated their “complete and absolute rejection of the displacement of the Palestinian people in any form and under any pretext” and called for a ceasefire and unconditional humanitarian aid access, denouncing what they described as Israel’s “systematic starvation policy used as a weapon of genocide.”
As the crisis grinds on, some hope flickers that southern Gaza could soon benefit from a new desalination plant across the border in Egypt—one that wouldn’t depend on Israel for power. But with Israel controlling the crossings, the fate of water (and those who depend on it) is still largely out of local hands. Aid groups warn that any renewed offensive, particularly in Gaza City and Muwasi, could further disrupt the fragile flow of water and humanitarian aid, making an already dire situation even worse.
For families like the Odehs, the search for water remains a daily struggle, fraught with risk and uncertainty. As one resident, Hosni Shaheen, put it: “It causes stomach cramps for adults and children, without exception. You don’t feel safe when your children drink it.” The crisis in Gaza is not just about water—it’s about survival, dignity, and the urgent need for peace and humanitarian relief.