Hamas, Not Israel, Is Responsible for Any Water Crisis in Gaza

Prior to the war, Gaza obtained only 9% of its water from Israel. So even Israel’s brief cutoff of water made little difference to the total water available in Gaza. It was not Israel, but Hamas, that refused to share its supply of hoarded fuel to run the desalination plants. Gaza itself produced the remaining 91% of water — some 200 million cubic meters of water per year — with the water pumped from the Coastal Aquifer lying underneath the Strip and Israel’s coastal plain, as well as desalinated water from the Mediterranean. The water pumped from the aquifer — approximately 79 percent of the water produced in Gaza, is not fit for drinking due to its high salinity. But the desalination facilities Gaza relied on before the war haven’t been able to run at full capacity because of the lack of fuel. Nor have the water treatment facilities that are used to treat water taken from the coastal aquifer — that also turns out to be too saline to be potable — been provided some of the fuel Hamas has hoarded. “Israel reopens second of three water pipelines into Gaza,” by Jeremy Sharon, Times of Israel, October 29, 2023:

Goren noted during his briefing that one of the three water pipelines from Israel to Gaza was knocked out of operation by Hamas in its October terror onslaught on October 7 and needs to be repaired….

Given the fact that a ferocious war is now on in Gaza, what Israeli crews would dare to repair the third pipeline that Hamas put out of operation on October 7? Shouldn’t it, in any case, be Hamas’ responsibility to fix what it deliberately broke? But have you read a word about that third water pipeline? Of course not. It would make Hamas look bad, and that would never do. Hamas has, however, managed to supply hospitals with diesel fuel for their generators. And that has been reported.

For two weeks, hospitals and UN agencies have been sounding the alarm — fuel supplies “are just about to run out.” Dy after day it’s the same warning. But they never do run out. By now we have a right to stop believing this narrative of the “dire situation” in Gaza. And now that Israel is now supplying Gaza with 28 million liters of water every day, the situation can no longer be described as “dire.” Still better would be an arrangement by which Hamas would guarantee the safety of Israeli crews so that they could repair, and put back in use, the third water pipeline running from Israel to Gaza, that Hamas had so badly damaged. The world would be reminded that Israel is providing water to Gaza, though it is under no obligation to provide water to its mortal enemies. Should Hamas not agree to withhold its fire, the Israelis won’t repair the pipeline, and the terror group will be seen clearly as the villain of the piece, preventing another 14.5 million liters of water from being pumped into Gaza every day.

Goren said this [Hamas providing fuel to hospitals] was partly in order to keep the hospitals occupied with patients since Hamas has built command and control centers underneath those health facilities and is using them as human shields for its fighters.

Hamas wants to make sure the Gazan hospitals are working, and full of patients, because under every one of Gaza’s hospitals are underground facilities, including tunnels, where weapons and fighters can be hidden, and command-and-control centers have been built. Israel would like to convince the medical personnel and patients to leave certain hospitals — Al-Quds and Al-Shifa — where Hamas has built the most extensive underground facilities. Until most of those patients and medical personnel leave, the presence of so many human shields will likely stay the IDF’s hand. And while Israel knows perfectly well what has been built underneath these hospitals — the weapons, the Hamas terrorists, the command and control centers, the access to the network of terror tunnels, it will have to carefully consider the wave of ferocious criticism that would be directed at it if the IDF launches an attack on a hospital filled with civilians, no matter what lies beneath it. That’s why, right now, the IDF keeps warning patients and medical personnel to leave the Al-Quds Hospital. When enough people, in the IDF’s calculation, have heeded the warnings and fled the hospital, or hospitals, then the attack will unavoidably take place.

In sum, what we know is this:

1) Israel has just doubled its supply of water to Gaza, which has gone from 14.5 to 28 million liters a day. This has not been reported in the Western media.

2) Hamas refuses to share its fuel with other Gazans. Without that fuel, the desalination plants and water treatment facilities that previously provided Gaza with hundreds of millions of liters of potable water are not able to operate.

3) Israel has promised that there will be a “dramatic increase” over the next few weeks in the amount of “humanitarian aid” entering Gaza.

4) The food that is currently entering Gaza through the Rafah Crossing, along with supplies of food that the Gazans already had in warehouses before the war began, or are able to grow, or raise, or produce themselves, is enough to feed the population, according to the Israelis who monitor the food situation in Gaza every day. There are two problems involving food. First, Hamas helps itself to as much as it wants, which is far more than what ordinary Gazans can expect to receive. Second, Gazans have been raiding the trucks bringing in food, and carrying off supplies before they can be distributed in an orderly, and equitable, fashion.

5) Do not use the word “dire” in describing the “humanitarian aid” situation in Gaza. Call it, rather, “difficult” — and the humanitarian situation in Gaza will remain “difficult” as long as Hamas continues its rule of terror and tyranny. For both American and Arab officials have agreed that Hamas is keeping food, water, and fuel for itself.