Israeli army commanders gave order to blow up Rafah’s main water facility
Israeli army commanders gave order to blow up Rafah’s main water facility
Last week Israeli soldiers from the IDF's '401st Brigade' blew up Rafah's main water reserve, with one soldier proudly posting the incident on social media.
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The lack of clean drinking water in Gaza has led to increasing dehydration, diarrhoea and skin diseases [Getty}
Israeli army commanders reportedly gave the order for soldiers to blow up the main drinking water reservoir facility in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in a flagrant violation of international law.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the army was investigating possible violations of international law by Israeli forces following an incident last week in which the water facility was destroyed by an army unit belonging to the 401st Brigade of the Armoured Corps.
The explosion was filmed and posted on social media, captioned: "The destruction of Tel Sultan's water reservoir in honour of Shabbat."
The assault on Palestinians' access to the basic essentials of life, such as water, has been a feature of Israel's current war on the besieged territory, since 9 October, when Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant ordered a "complete siege" on Gaza, including the halting of electricity, food, water and fuel.
According to Haaretz, however, the order to blow up the facility was taken without the approval of senior officers from the Israeli army's Southern Command.
Following an initial probe the army will decide whether to refer the case to Israel's military police for further investigation, according to Haaretz.
Rafah | Rafah’s water reservoir blown up
— Younis Tirawi | يونس (@ytirawi) July 26, 2024
Israeli soldier from the combat engineering corps sharing footage on his personal account blowing Rafah’s water reservoir in Tel Sultan neighborhood “in honor of Shabbat” as he describes it. pic.twitter.com/bpCghkOWeQ
The water reserve was located in Rafah's Tel Sultan neighbourhood, close to areas the Israeli army has designated humanitarian areas.
International humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention prohibit the destruction of facilities essential to the survival of civilians in times of war, such as drinking water installations.
Deliberately denying civilians access to "objects indispensable to their survival" - such as a clean water supply - is considered a war crime.
As Jessica Buxbaum wrote in January, one distinct feature of Israel's current war on Gaza is in how Israeli soldiers have frequently uploaded videos showing them carrying out possible war crimes, such as the demolition, vandalising and looting of civilian homes.
Conditions in Gaza are worsening, after medical groups announced that polio has been detected in parts of Gaza, resulting from the collapsed healthcare system and lack of clean water and hygiene facilities.
Israel's war on Gaza has ravaged the enclave, killing over 39,000 people and wounding over 90,000 others since October, although a recent Lancet report stated that the overall death toll may be as high as 186,000 people.
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