Denial of access to water is a long-standing Israeli policy of water pillage and apartheid. The explicit aim is to ethnically cleanse or destroy the Palestinian population anywhere under Israeli control in order to colonize their land.

Water Genocide in Gaza

The denial of water has been since its beginning a crucial element in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. In preparation for its renewed carpet bombing of Gaza that shatters the fragile ceasefire, on March 9, Israeli Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Eli Cohen ordered an immediate electricity cutoff to Gaza, shutting down the South Gaza Desalination Plant. Since early March, Israeli authorities have also blocked humanitarian aid, including fuel, from entering Gaza. 

Already, 95% of Gaza’s water from its sole aquifer, the Coastal Aquifer, was unsuitable for consumption before October 7, forcing many to consume contaminated water and buy overpriced water from Israel’s state-owned company, Mekorot. 

When Israel cut off water on October 8, it was Israel’s national water company, Mekorot, which supplies 70% of Gaza City’s water, to implement the genocidal order. This has pushed 2.3 million Palestinians into extreme thirst and worsened waterborne and other disease outbreaks.

Because of the severe and intentional water crisis in Gaza, families build small-scale desalination units using plastic bottles and sunlight to evaporate seawater, condensing the steam into drinkable water. 

Agricultural engineer Inas al-Ghul from Khan Younis harnesses solar energy to desalinate water. ​

These DIY solutions sustain life and defy Israeli policies that weaponize water access. 

However, nothing but the end of Israel’s genocide, siege, occupation and water apartheid can end the chronic and systematically produced lack of water, sanitation, and the spread of waterborne diseases. 

Weaponizing Water in the West Bank 

The Apartheid Wall

Denial of access to water is a long-standing Israeli policy of water pillage and apartheid. The explicit aim is to ethnically cleanse or otherwise destroy the Palestinian population.

Israel’s Apartheid Wall in the West Bank consolidated Israeli control over the water, further isolating Palestinian communities from their water sources. It cut off Palestinians from over 150 wells and dozens of springs. The majority of the Western Mountain Aquifer is now unreachable for Palestinians, annexing the mass of the water to Israel.

Masafer Yatta – Water as a tool of expulsion

In the Masafer Yatta area in the South Hebron Hills, Israel has restricted Palestinian communities from accessing electricity and water while demolishing agricultural infrastructure, including wells and irrigation systems.

After October 7th 2023, as the attacks by the Israeli military and settler militias towards Palestinians Masafer Yatta intensified, water continued a weapon of choice: settlers pumped sewage water into farming land, Mekorot cut back the water supply, and the military and militias destroyed ever more water infrastructure. In February 2025, the Israeli military demolished two water cisterns, two water tanks and three solar panels, the Khilet-a-Dabe’ community relied on.

Control over water resources is a key factor in Israel’s settlement expansion, with settlements strategically placed near vital water sources. Land confiscation, the expropriation of Palestinian wells, and physical barriers further isolate Palestinian communities from essential water access.

A History of Weaponization of Water 

A series of discriminatory laws, policies, and practices prevent Palestinians from accessing their groundwater resources. Since 1967, Israeli military orders have granted Israel control over 99% of the Palestinian water sector. These orders form the basis for the routine denial of permits by the Israeli Civil Administration (ICA) for drilling new wells or repairing existing ones in Area C. In contrast, some of Mekorot’s wells in the West Bank have been drilled 900 metres deep.

Water Apartheid – Bedouin Communities in the Naqab

Palestinian Bedouin communities in the Naqab (Negev) have been systematically denied access to water by Israel. Despite being Israeli citizens, Bedouin communities are often denied basic water services to dispossess, marginalize and ethnically cleanse them. This deliberate policy aims to force the Bedouins to abandon their ancestral lands and move into townships where Israel wants to ghettoize them. 

Unrecognized Bedouin villages are not connected to the national water grid, which compels residents to rely on expensive and unreliable water deliveries. Without the necessary water,  Bedouin communities lose their livelihoods based on herding. It impacts their health and overall quality of life. 

Economic Discrimination and Corporate Profiteering

Corporations such as Mekorot, Hagihon, IDE Technologies and Netafim exploit Palestinian water resources. This commercial exploitation creates a dependency on Israeli-supplied water, benefiting these corporations while perpetuating economic hardships.

Mekorot even sells water back to Palestinian communities at high prices after it has stolen it from them. 

Mekorot – a cornerstone of Israel’s colonial project of ethnic cleansing

Founded in 1937, it played a pivotal role in the Zionist colonial project prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, providing water and infrastructure for new settlement homes and agriculture. The company developed the first national water plan as early as 1944. In the 1940s, Mekorot established its first waterworks in the Naqab, for the exclusive use of 11 Jewish settlements.

During the genocide in Gaza, Mekorot has remained key instrument for Israel’s crimes. Starting October 8 2023, Mekorot reduced its water supplies to Gaza by 78%. Compounded by Israel’s systematic destruction of over 700 wells and water desalination plants, this has left Palestinians in Gaza with 6% of the water available before – 4.74 litres a day per person, just under a third of the internationally accepted minimum for basic survival.

The Water Authority in Gaza announced in 2024 that the amount of water purchased from Mekorot for the Gaza Strip totalled 13.8 million cubic meters, costing over 54 million shekels ($14.8 million). According to the authority, the water supply has dropped from 18.5 million cubic meters since October 2023, attributing the reduction to Israel’s criminal and punitive measures and the weaponization of water as a genocidal tactic. Already before October 2023, Gaza’s water supply was already insufficient to meet the needs of its 2.3 million residents.

Netafim – Water, Colonization, and the Military 

Netafim, a leading Israeli agricultural technology company, has historical ties to Zionist colonization; the company describes itself as “born of the need to make the Israeli desert bloom”. The company was founded in 1965 in Kibbutz Hatzerim, an agricultural cooperative in the Naqab. Its drip irrigation system was developed with support from the Jewish National Fund and Israeli government agencies. 

The company benefits from military technology.  Netafim partnered with mPrest Systems, a defense contractor partly owned by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, to integrate military-grade software from the Iron Dome system into its NetBeat™ irrigation platform. 

The company also expands its global presence through partnerships with corporate and financial institutions, including Bayer, the World Bank’s IFC, and agricultural initiatives in Asia,  Africa, and Latin America.

Our Call for Action

We call for a full boycott of Mekorot, Netafim and other complicit Israeli water companies:

Organize farmers unions to ensure their products are boycotted.

Pressure your governments not to contract or collaborate with these companies and withdraw import licences. 

The employees, managers, and directors of Mekorot, and other complicit Israel water companies, must be held criminally accountable for their actions. The companies must be forced to pay reparations for the harm they have inflicted.