Photo source: Nasser Nawaj’ah, B’Tselem – CC BY 4.0

I have a very intense relationship with water. Due to a chronic illness, I am often very thirsty and drained. I cannot go more than maybe 15 minutes without a drink of water before I start to feel unwell. On average, people in the UK use 149 litres of water a day and although there is poverty in this country and the water system is privatised, access to water is considered a basic human right and cannot be legally withheld from private households, even if the bills are not paid.

In comparison, Gaza is currently waging a war against the people and their access to water. The occupying state has systematically destroyed and dismantled access to water. An Oxfam report has outlined the catastrophic decline in water access and water quality since the genocide began:

“Since the start of the Israeli offensive after October 7, 2023, the people of Gaza have had only 4.74 liters of water per person per day for all purposes, including drinking, cooking and washing, representing a dramatic 94% reduction in the amount of water previously available. This is well below the internationally accepted minimum standard of 15 litres of water per person per day for basic emergency survival.”

The Palestinians in Gaza have already been forced to rely largely on the occupation for their water supplies due to the illegal siege since 2006. The apartheid state is now using this construct to weaponise water to such an extreme extent that people are dehydrated to death and preventable and deadly diseases are spreading through the population. The occupation announced its intentions to the world very early and very clearly with genocide. On 9.^th In October 2023, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, “I have ordered a full siege of the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed.” This included cutting off water supplies and went as far as bombing and destroying any attempt by the Palestinians to alleviate this. In July alone, the genocidal terrorists blew up over 30 water wells in Khan Younis and Rafah in southern Gaza, almost completely destroying the sanitation and sewage system throughout the Gaza Strip.

All this is described in meticulous detail in the Oxfam report:

“External supplies from Israel’s national water company, Mekorot, have fallen by 78%. Israel has destroyed 70% of all sewage pumps and 100% of all sewage treatment plants, as well as the main laboratories for testing water quality in Gaza.”

These are clearly wanton acts of genocide, funded and supported to the utmost by the US, the UK and other Western countries, all of whom desperately want us to believe that they respect and value human rights.

We, the British people, support the construction and operation of a water well in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza. Please donate and share to help the Palestinian people access this basic and vital resource. The well may be targeted and attacked but we must support the Palestinians to stay in place, on their land. The occupying and genocidal state will not destroy the Palestinians and put even an inch of distance between us in our unwavering support for them.

We as allies must listen to the Palestinians and stand with them. We must continue to support the Palestinians in supporting themselves and stand with them until they achieve their full liberation, and we must believe that that day will come, because it will come.