The Government Media Office in Gaza has issued a searing statement exposing Israel’s deliberate and systematic targeting of Gaza’s water and food infrastructure — an unfolding “crime of thirst” amid an already devastating humanitarian catastrophe.

According to the statement, since the onset of the Israeli genocide in 2023, Israeli occupation forces have bombed at least 112 water distribution sites, many of them crowded with desperate civilians, including children. These attacks have led to the massacre of hundreds of Palestinians who were merely trying to secure drinking water.

Gaza’s water supply — which depends on groundwater, limited transfers from Israel’s Mekorot water company, and desalination plants — has been crippled by deliberate Israeli military operations. The Media Office revealed that 720 water wells have been destroyed, cutting off more than 1.25 million people from access to clean water. Israel has also prevented the entry of 12 million liters of fuel monthly, further disabling Gaza’s already strained water and sanitation systems, including water wells, garbage collection, and sewage treatment facilities.

In a particularly cruel escalation, on January 23, 2025, Israel cut off Mekorot water — Gaza’s last remaining large-scale supply. Later, on March 9, Israeli forces severed the final power line to the central desalination plant near Deir al-Balah, halting large-scale water purification and deepening the water crisis that has engulfed the entire population.

“This is not a water shortage. This is a military-engineered thirst — a full-fledged war crime,” the statement asserted, citing grave violations of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.

A Genocidal Policy of Starvation

The Media Office further condemned the Israeli army’s parallel war on Gaza’s food infrastructure, describing it as a coordinated starvation campaign. Over the course of 22 months of bombardment and siege, Israeli forces have targeted more than 60 food distribution centers, shut down 170 community kitchens, and blocked life-saving food convoys from entering the territory.

One of the most brutal incidents occurred on April 1, 2025, when Israeli airstrikes targeted a World Central Kitchen convoy in Deir al-Balah, killing seven humanitarian workers as they transported food and aid. Less than a week later, on April 7, Israeli bombs struck a tent near Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis filled with civilians waiting for food, killing at least six and injuring ten.

The Media Office also recounted the targeted assassination of the founder of Gaza’s Soup Kitchen, who was killed in his car on November 30, 2024 while delivering food to a hospital.

More recently, Israeli forces reportedly bombed a desalination plant east of Gaza City, cutting off 70% of Gaza’s remaining water supply. These operations, the statement claims, are not military necessities — they are part of an orchestrated policy aimed at starving and dehydrating Gaza into submission.

800 Killed While Seeking Food

Tragically, over 800 Palestinians have been killed since late May 2025 while trying to collect food aid from distribution centers run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Many of the victims were children and women.

The Government Media Office concluded its statement by calling on international institutions, human rights bodies, and all free people of the world to rise in urgent solidarity with Gaza. “What we are witnessing is not collateral damage,” the statement said. “It is genocide by starvation and thirst — carried out in broad daylight, with the silent complicity of much of the world.”

As the siege tightens, and with the majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people facing catastrophic hunger and thirst, Gaza’s leadership has reiterated that the people remain defiant. “Our people will not surrender,” the statement affirmed. “Their steadfastness is stronger than the bombs and the blockade.” (ILKHA)