Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of committing “acts of genocide” by denying clean water to Palestinians in Gaza, and called on the international community to impose targeted sanctions.

In a new report released on Thursday, the New York-based watchdog said that since October 2023 – when Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza – Israeli authorities have “deliberately obstructed Palestinians’ access to the adequate amount of water required for survival in the Gaza Strip”.

“What we have found is that the Israeli government is intentionally killing Palestinians in Gaza by denying them the water that they need to survive,” Lama Fakih, Human Rights Watch Middle East director told a news conference.

The 184-page study described how the Israeli government cut off the water supply piped into Gaza from Israel, cut off the electricity supply needed to operate water pumps, and blocked and restricted the fuel needed to run generators in the absence of electricity.

It also blocked United Nations agencies and humanitarian aid organisations from delivering water-related materials and other humanitarian aid.

Satellite imagery analysed by the organisation found extensive damage and destruction to water and sanitation infrastructure, including the “apparently deliberate, systematic razing of the solar panels powering four of Gaza’s six wastewater treatment plants by Israeli ground forces, as well as Israeli soldiers filming themselves demolishing a key water reservoir”.

As a result, Palestinians in Gaza had access to only a few litres of water a day in many areas, far below the 15-litre threshold for survival. A large number of the more than 2.3 million people living in Gaza were deprived of access “to even that bare minimum amount of water, which has contributed to death and widespread disease”.

This policy amounts to “acts of genocide” under the Genocide Convention of 1948, it concluded. “Israeli authorities intentionally inflicted on the Palestinian population in Gaza ‘conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.’”

Israel rejects findings

Israel has repeatedly rejected any accusation of genocide, saying it has a right to defend itself after the Hamas-led attack from Gaza on October 7, 2023.

On Thursday, it rejected HRW’s report, calling its findings “appalling lies”.

Proving the crime of genocide against Israeli officials before international courts also requires establishing an intent to commit this crime.

The Genocide Convention, enacted following the mass murder of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, defines the crime of genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.

The report cited statements by some senior Israeli officials which it said suggested they “wish to destroy Palestinians” which means the deprivation of water “may amount to the crime of genocide”.

It also argued that Israel violated provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in January, as part of a case brought by South Africa alleging that Israel is violating the Genocide Convention.

The court required Israel to enable the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance to demonstrate it has no genocidal intent.

In light of its findings, HRW called on the international community to issue “targeted sanctions, suspension of arms transfers and military assistance, and review of bilateral trade and political agreements” to pressure Israel to comply with the ICJ’s provisional measures.

The report follows another study by Amnesty International issued earlier this month that also concluded that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) last month issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Israel’s war has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the population and reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins.