HRW: Israel Is Committing Crime of Extermination and Acts of Genocide
The State Department, which is implicated in Israel's
crimes, said it disagreed with the report
December 19, 2024
Human Rights Watch said in a report published on
Thursday that Israel
is committing the crime of extermination and acts of genocide by depriving the
civilian population of Gaza of the necessary amount of water to survive.
HRW said in a press release that its 179-page report found “that Israeli
authorities have intentionally deprived Palestinians in Gaza of access to safe
water for drinking and sanitation needed for basic human survival.”
“Israeli authorities and forces cut off and later
restricted piped water to Gaza; rendered most of Gaza’s water and sanitation
infrastructure useless by cutting electricity and restricting fuel;
deliberately destroyed and damaged water and sanitation infrastructure and
water repair materials; and blocked the entry of critical water supplies,” HRW
said.
The report found the restrictions on water have likely
caused thousands of deaths. “Doctors and nurses told Human Rights Watch that
they had seen numerous infants, children, and adults die from a combination of
malnutrition, dehydration, and disease,” the report reads.
HRW said it spoke with 66 Palestinians in Gaza, who
discussed the near-impossibility of securing water for themselves and their
families. “If we can’t find drinkable water, we drink the seawater,” one father
displaced in Rafah told the organization in December 2023. “It happened to me
many times when I had to drink the seawater. You don’t understand how much we
are suffering.”
The report found that, on average, Palestinians in
Gaza live with 2-9 liters of water per day for their drinking, cooking, and
personal washing needs, far below the 50-100 liters per day the World Health
Organization (WHO) says in the minimum people need to meet their most basic
needs. In protracted emergency situations, the WHO says a minimum amount of 15
liters of water per person per day for drinking and washing is needed.
HRW said Israeli authorities have “deliberately
inflicted conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of part
of the population in Gaza.” By doing so, Israeli officials are “responsible for
the crime against humanity of extermination and for acts of genocide.”
HRW said this “pattern of conduct, coupled
with statements suggesting that some Israeli officials wished to destroy
Palestinians in Gaza, may amount to the crime of genocide. “
The HRW report comes after Amnesty International
released a 296-page report that concluded Israel is committing genocide in
Gaza. The US government, which is implicated in Israel’s crimes due to the huge
amount of US military aid to Israel, denied Amnesty’s conclusion and said on Thursday that it “disagreed” with
HRW’s report.
“When it comes to a determination of something like
genocide, the legal standard is just incredibly high, and so the finding in
this scenario we just disagree with,” State Department spokesman Vedant
Patel told reporters.
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