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How Israel Renewed Gaza's Water Supply amid War
(Times of Israel) Aviv Lavie - Even before Oct. 7, the Gaza water network was in a fragile state and the population suffered from chronic shortages. Direct contacts between Israelis and Palestinian professionals in Gaza took place early in the war to ensure the renewal of the water supply from Israel to Gaza. In recent years, Israel has pumped 20 million cubic meters of water per year into Gaza using three pipes. The northern pumping facility, near Kibbutz Nahal Oz, was rendered inoperative after being damaged in the Oct. 7 attack. Giora Shaham, former chairman of Israel's Water Authority, said that to repair damaged pipelines inside Gaza, the Defense Ministry's "COGAT [unit] led a major coordination effort, and in the end Palestinian workers were sent to the places where the pipes were damaged near the fence, and repaired them under heavy IDF security. These were Palestinians who were using heavy machinery and welding tools near the fence." The IDF troops "formed a ring around them to make it clear that this was a partner, not an enemy." "After hearing the prosecutor in The Hague talk about deliberate water deprivation, it's important for me to say that the Israeli side made great efforts to replenish the water supply to Gaza by repairing the pipeline on our side and by helping the Palestinians fix their side." A source in the Israeli water market said, "When they tried to renew the flow from the Israeli side, every time they activated the stream the pipes on the other side burst from the pressure. There were lots of attempts to fix it. After turning it on and off maybe two hundred times, it somehow worked in the end."