How one Israeli company controls – and cuts off – Palestinians’ access to water in the West Bank

For 100 days, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank town of Idna have been surviving without running water. The town of some 40,000 inhabitants has been relying on rain reservoirs and water tanks sold by vendors. The town’s water crisis was provoked by the April decision of Israeli national water company Mekorot to reduce the daily provision of water to the Hebron governorate of the southern West Bank. The water supply shrank from 32,000 cubic meters to 26,000, which included completely shutting down Mekorot’s water line for Idna.

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PALESTINIANS FILL PLASTIC BOTTLES AND JERRY CANS WITH DRINKING WATER FROM A WATER TANK IN THE WEST BANK VILLAGE OF UM AL-KHAIR SOUTH OF HEBRON, AUGUST 17, 2016. (PHOTO: WISAM HASHLAMOUN/APA IMAGES)

Gaza Gov’t Media Office Says Israel Systematically Destroys Water Infrastructure

Gaza Gov’t Media Office Says Israel Systematically Destroys Water Infrastructure

The office says Israeli forces have destroyed 720 water wells, depriving more than 1.25 million people of clean water.

By Tareq S. Hajjaj ,MONDOWEISS July 18, 2025

Sunday’s attack on people lining up for water was not the first attack by the Israeli army on hungry and thirsty civilians in Gaza. Following the massacre, Gaza’s Government Media Office issued a detailed statement indicating that the Israeli military has targeted 112 sites distributing fresh water since the Israeli genocide began in 2023, resulting in massacres of hundreds of civilians — mostly children — who were trying to get drinking water.

The Gaza Strip’s water supply depends on three primary sources: groundwater, water supplied directly from Israel through the national water company (Mekorot), and central desalination plants that belong to the Coastal Municipality Water Utility in Gaza.

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Palestinians check the site of an Israeli strike on a water well in al-Saftawi area west of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, on May 18, 2025.

BASHAR TALEB / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES