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This UN Humanitarian Bulletin describes ways in which Israel continues to displace people in the West Bank by using denial of access to water as one weapon in its arsenal.
https://www.ochaopt.org/content/palestinians-strive-access-water-jordan-valley
Of the two million people in the Gaza Strip, nearly 50% (991,400) are children under 15 years old.
Like the adults, the children cannot access water due to the damage to wells, groundwater, desalination plants, and sewage treatment plants as a result of the Israel’s military assaults and blockade.
Even before Israel’s latest bombings, the Occupation-caused deterioration of the sanitation system, prevalence of contaminated water and sewage, and lack of clean drinking water led to a 41.5% rate of diarrhea among young children, under- and malnutrition, anemia in 59.7% of schoolchildren, gastroenteritis, kidney disease, anemia, pediatric cancer, "blue baby” syndrome, and dehydration and fever.
Today, 91% of children in the Gaza Strip additionally suffer from PTSD after the Israeli attack. Prior to the recent military assault, about 33% of children needed support as a result of trauma caused by Israeli forces.
As a result of Israel’s latest bombings—
• one or both parents of 241 children died.
• 5,400 children’s homes were completely destroyed or severely damaged.
• 42,000 children’s homes were partially damaged.
• 72,000 children were internally displaced to UNRWA schools or relatives’ homes during the Israeli attack. More than 4,000 children remain displaced today.
66 children were killed in the Israeli bombing of Gaza in 11 days. At least 470 children were injured, including injuries that will result in permanent or long-term disabilities.
Note: Despite the Israeli occupation and its restrictions on Palestinians’ freedom, the literacy rate in Palestine (97.2%) is one of the highest in the Middle East, and the illiteracy rate is one of the lowest in the world. The Gaza Strip has a higher literacy rate than the West Bank.
Sources: euromedmonitor, aljazeera, pcbs
Soon after the 1967 war, Israeli leaders discussed how to expel the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians newly under its military occupation. Levi Eshkol, then Israel’s prime minister, proposed: “If we don’t give them enough water they won’t have a choice.”
Israel’s relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip has erased entire families, and destroyed hospitals, clinics (and the only lab for conducting Covid-19 tests), and the roads accessing them. It has also destroyed the water and sanitation infrastructure and the electricity system, leaving Gazans with only 2 to 3 hours of electricity a day.
The Gaza Strip’s 365 square kilometers is home to two million Palestinians. Its density is 5,479 people per square kilometer.
In 1947, about 80,000 Palestinians were living in the towns and villages that became the Gaza Strip. Their aquifer at that time produced 60 million cubic meters of water a year, sufficient to serve the residents and later to serve the additional 200,000 Palestinians who were expelled to Gaza in 1948 and became refugees. Today, after Israel’s bombardments, more than 95% of the water in Gaza is not potable.
More than 800,000 Gazans, 43% of the population, are under 14 years old. These children have been traumatized by four wars and have never had a drink of water from their faucets.
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