A Palestinian human rights center said that Israel is using "deprivation" as a weapon to turn the Gaza Strip into an uninhabitable place, and warned of an "unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe" threatening the lives of Palestinians by depriving them of clean and safe water sources.

This came in a statement issued by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights on Saturday, on the occasion of World Water Day, which falls on March 22 of each year.

The center added that it warns of "an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe threatening the lives of 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, who are living a horrific reality in which they are condemned to a slow death through deprivation of water and systematic deprivation of clean, safe water sources."

He explained that Israel continues to "use deprivation and water cuts as part of its genocide, coinciding with World Water Day."

He stated that "Gaza's water infrastructure, desalination facilities, and sewage treatment facilities have been massively destroyed as a result of the military offensive launched by the Israeli occupation on the Strip since October 7, 2023."

In addition to the destruction, the center said that the Israeli decision to cut off the limited electricity supply to the central desalination plant in the central Gaza Strip exacerbated the deteriorating humanitarian conditions and the water crisis.

On March 9, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority announced that Energy and Infrastructure Minister Eli Cohen had decided to halt electricity supplies to Gaza "immediately." Israel had been supplying the Strip with limited power to operate the water station in the central Gaza Strip.

Commenting on this, Mohammed Thabet, media director at the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company, previously told Anadolu Agency that Israel had supplied the Gaza Strip with five megawatts of power since November 2024, which was used solely to operate the desalination plant, following the intervention of international and UN organizations, until March 9.

The human rights center emphasized that these crimes fall under the category of "the persistence of genocide against Palestinians, which aims to transform the Gaza Strip into an uninhabitable place and eradicate the Palestinian presence there."

He stressed that large areas of the Gaza Strip are now "devoid of water fit for drinking and human use" due to the massive destruction caused by the war of extermination.

In light of this water crisis, the center noted that Palestinians are now relying on "very scarce and polluted" water supplies, noting that the per capita water supply has decreased from 86 liters per day before October 2023 to just 3-12 liters.

The center quoted a joint statement by the Water Authority and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, stating that Israel had completely or partially destroyed more than 85 percent of water and sanitation facilities, putting them out of service.

Citing an assessment issued by Oxfam, he reported that the damaged facilities included 1,675 kilometers of water and sewage networks, 85 desalination plants, and 246 wells, in addition to the destruction of 40 large water reservoirs.

The Center called on the Special Rapporteur on the right to water and sanitation to declare Gaza an environmental disaster area due to the collapse of water and sanitation systems, which has led to the spread of infectious diseases and epidemics.

He called for "holding the occupying state fully responsible for this disaster and obligating it to implement the right to water and sanitation services for the residents of the Gaza Strip, and the resulting obligations related to protecting civilian infrastructure essential to the survival of the population."

Since resuming its genocide in Gaza at dawn on Tuesday and continuing until Saturday, Israel has killed 634 Palestinians and injured 1,172 others, most of them women and children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

This escalation, which Tel Aviv said was taking place in full coordination with Washington, represents the most significant violation of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, the second phase of which Israel refrained from implementing after the first phase expired in early March.

Despite Hamas's commitment to all terms of the agreement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to proceed with the second phase, bowing to pressure from extremists within his government.

With American support, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, leaving more than 162,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 14,000 missing.