'Everything in Gaza finds a horrific, heartbreaking way to get worse'

The lack of water in Gaza means children, the elderly and the most vulnerable are now more in danger from thirst than hunger 

Children collect water in jerrycans at a distribution point in Gaza, where more than 80% of water and sanitation infrastructure has been destroyed. Picture: Jehad Alshrafi/AP

A child has been killed every hour of every single day in Gaza over the past 21 months.

Now, death by dehydration has become the latest barbaric tool being used by Israel against Palestinians.

The latest 60-day ceasefire proposal announced this week provides a glimmer of hope, but it will have come too late for many Gazan children, who have been denied a safe home to live, a school to learn in, food to eat and in recent weeks, water to drink.

"Everything in Gaza somehow finds this horrific, heartbreaking way to get worse," Unicef's James Elder said on his three-day visit Dublin this week.

As Unicef's global spokesman, many of his often passionate videos from within Gaza have gone viral, but it has been the use of water as a weapon against women and children that shocked him on his latest trip to the Palestinian enclave.

Mild dehydration can cause headaches, dizziness, and fatigue, while severe dehydration can result in organ damage and seizures. As humans, we can only survive between three and five days without water. 

Temperatures in Khan Yunis, where people in northern Gaza were ordered to yet again evacuate to, have averaged 31C this week. Women, children and the elderly have yet again packed up whatever they can carry to walk in the heat to a so-called safe zone. But of course, nowhere is safe.

On Wednesday, a major reservoir in the south was deemed to be in an evacuation zone, meaning a source of water that served tens of thousands of people was suddenly made inaccessible.

"When you drive through tens of thousands of displaced people, you see every single person carrying something for water, just in case a truck comes — that level of stress on a population for water at a time of malnutrition, at a time of disease, at a time of peak summer, is creating tension and fear that is new on top of existing trauma," Mr Elder said.

In February this year, at a time when the flow of aid into Gaza had resumed, Oxfam warned the deliberate destruction of water infrastructure in Gaza had increased spread of waterborne diseases to catastrophic levels, with 46,000 cases of infectious illnesses reported weekly, mostly impacting children.

It was then estimated that more than 80% of water and sanitation infrastructure across the Gaza Strip had been partially or entirely destroyed.

Oxfam’s own 85-tonne shipment of water pipes, fittings and water tanks had been held up for more than six months because it was deemed as dual-use and “oversized” to enter.

But since the collapse of the last six-week temporary ceasefire in March, the flow of humanitarian aid has plummeted to a trickle, all of which is now controlled by the ironically named Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Before October 7, Gazans already relied on a ramshackle system of water provision. Three main pipelines running from Israel provided drinking water, along with a mixture of wells and desalination plants.

But by March of last year, only the Bani-Saeed pipe was in operation, and this was down to 47% of its capacity. The other two pipelines had at that stage been non-operational for months, putting added pressure on the few operating desalination plants.

"It has hit a rock bottom in the last month, and every single day it deteriorates, it gets worse. And that's based on very simply at the moment in Gaza water production, water treatment, water distribution, it all requires fuel, and Israel has put a more than 100-day blockade on any fuel getting into the Gaza Strip," Mr Elder explained.

A lack of food has eked away at tiny bodies, leaving them vulnerable to disease and death.

Since October 2023, at least 66 children have died as a direct result of malnutrition-related conditions in Gaza, according to Amnesty international.

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The victims include four-month-old baby Jinan Iskafi, who died on May 3, due to severe malnutrition. According to her medical report, which was reviewed by Amnesty International, Jinan was admitted to the Rantissi paediatric hospital due to severe dehydration and recurrent infections. She was diagnosed with marasmus, a severe form of protein-energy malnutrition, chronic diarrhoea and a suspected case of immunodeficiency.

Many more children are dying as a result of preventable diseases that their malnourished systems cannot cope with, and with water now extremely scarce, people are seeking out sources that are not fit for drinking.

"These are entirely political decisions. They have nothing to do with logistics," Mr Elder said of the water situation.

"If they were to turn that around, if they were allow fuel in, or if they were to turn on the power that runs desalination plants, either of these decisions would change the water situation for Palestinians within 24 hours."