More than 700 Palestinians, most of them children, have been killed in targeted attacks on water collection points across the Gaza Strip, in what Palestinian officials are calling a deliberate and systematic “thirst war.” According to the Government Media Office, Israeli forces have carried out at least 112 such massacres, striking civilians as they queued for water.

The most recent attack took place at the New Camp near Al-Nuseirat, where 12 people, including 8 children, were killed on Sunday morning while trying to fill containers from a freshwater line.

Beyond the bombings, Israel has reportedly destroyed at least 720 water wells, crippling access for more than 1.25 million people. The complete blockade on fuel, 12 million litres per month are needed just to keep basic infrastructure functioning, has left water systems and sanitation networks paralysed. Diseases, especially among children, are spreading rapidly as sewage overflows and clean water disappears.

In January, Israeli authorities cut off the last Mekorot water supply line to Gaza. In March, the only electricity source powering the central desalination plant was severed, worsening an already catastrophic shortage.

Palestinian officials accuse Israel of weaponising water, turning thirst into a tool of collective punishment. What they describe is not collateral damage but an intentional campaign to deny an entire population its most basic human right: the right to drink.

The Government Media Office has called on the international community, UN agencies, and humanitarian bodies to intervene immediately, demanding unimpeded access to water and fuel, and the opening of an international investigation into what it deems one of the gravest war crimes of this era.

In Gaza today, children are not only dying from bombs, they are dying from thirst. And the silence surrounding this man-made crisis speaks louder than any condemnation.