Overview
- Doctors Without Borders, which released its “Water as a Weapon” report on Tuesday, alleges Israeli authorities engineered water scarcity in Gaza, a claim Israel’s COGAT rejects as false while saying supply meets humanitarian thresholds.
- The report cites United Nations, European Union and World Bank data indicating that nearly 90 percent of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed since October 2023.
- MSF documents shots fired at clearly marked water trucks and boreholes and says Palestinians have been injured or killed while trying to collect water.
- UNICEF reports two of its contractors were killed this month at the Mansoura filling point in northern Gaza, the only site that loads tankers supplying Gaza City.
- Gaza’s water utility says only 16 of 78 sewage pumping stations still work and that blocked entry of parts has let raw sewage seep into the aquifer, which MSF links to widespread diarrhoeal disease found in a 2025 study.