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'Horrific': Israeli Military Kills Seven Children in Latest Attack on Water Distribution Site
Gaza's Government Media Office said Israeli forces have killed more than 700 people at water distribution sites since October 2023.
Jul 14, 2025
Israeli forces on Sunday killed at least 10 people—most of them children—as they attempted to obtain water at a distribution point in central Gaza, an attack that came as Israel's military was accused of intentionally depriving Palestinians of access to water as part of its U.S.-backed genocidal assault on the enclave.
The attack on Sunday killed seven children and injured more than a dozen people, drawing international outrage.
"Yet again we're seeing horrific reports of the killing of seven children in Gaza, this time as they were waiting for water at a distribution site," said Catherine Russell, executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund. "This comes just days after several children and women were killed waiting for nutritional supplies."
"The Israeli authorities must urgently review the rules of engagement and ensure full compliance with international humanitarian law, notably the protection of civilians, including children," Russell added. "UNICEF calls for an immediate and lasting cease-fire, aid at scale, and release of hostages."
The Israeli military acknowledged that it carried out the attack but denied it was trying to hit the water distribution point, claiming that a "technical error" caused the missile to miss its purported target—an Islamic Jihad militant—by dozens of meters.
Gaza's Government Media Office said in a statement early Monday that Israeli forces have killed more than 700 people in more than 100 attacks on water distribution sites since October 2023. The media office also said the Israeli government has prevented 12 million liters of fuel from entering the enclave per month, "the minimum amount needed to operate water wells, sewage treatment plants, waste collection vehicles, and other vital sectors."
"The Gaza Strip is today witnessing a major crime of deprivation of water, perpetrated deliberately and systematically by the Israeli occupation, amidst complete international silence and the direct and indirect participation of European and Western countries implicated in supporting or complicit in the crime of genocide," the office said.
Leading humanitarian organizations, including Oxfam and Human Rights Watch (HRW), have also accused the Israeli government of using water as a weapon of war in the Gaza Strip by cutting off supply and decimating the enclave's existing infrastructure, including wells and desalination plants.
The International Rescue Committee said last week that Gaza's "entire water system has broken down" and warned that "there is simply not enough clean water to meet the needs of the population in Gaza."
"When clean water is unavailable, the consequences extend far beyond thirst; families are forced to rely on unsafe water sources for cooking, cleaning, and bathing, heightening the risk of disease outbreaks like skin conditions, diarrhea, and hepatitis," the group said. "This compounds the burden on Gaza's collapsing health system, particularly in overcrowded shelters with limited hygiene options."
Israeli forces have also been massacring civilians at food distribution sites in recent weeks as famine spreads throughout Gaza.
The United Nations said on Friday that it recorded 798 killings at food distribution locations in Gaza between May 27 and July 7, with the overwhelming majority occurring in the vicinity of sites managed by the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
"They have a choice between being shot or being fed," said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the U.N. Human Rights Office.
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The Poison We Pay For: As Federal Budget Cuts Slash Public Water, Big Plastic Wins
Federal cuts to drinking water programs and regulations will further erode trust in tap water, worsening water inequity and the plastic pollution crisis.
Jun 27, 2025
As the Trump administration works to finalize next year’s budget, we must pay attention to funds for drinking water. The currently proposed federal funding cuts will weaken the ability of public water systems to ensure safe water, diminish trust in tap water, and increase business for plastic bottled water—the de facto response when water systems falter.
But what could be more important than access to clean water? To some industries, it seems the answer is profit—especially for Big Plastic.
Water is essential for all life, and access to safe drinking water is an internationally recognized human right. To deny water is to deny health.
It is critical that funding be redirected into public drinking water systems, away from corporate handouts and privatization of our precious freshwater resources.
President Donald Trump says his administration wants “really clean water.” However, it’s difficult to see how dismantling Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation and capacity, rolling back federal clean water protections, and drastically cutting drinking water infrastructure will lead to anything but the pollution of billions of single-use plastic bottles, increased threats to public health, and worsening water injustice.
The White House’s fiscal year 2026 budget plans to slash funding for the Clean and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds by nearly 90%. This funding is the primary source of federal support for water infrastructure across the nation, and has been underfunded for decades. In fact, these new proposed cuts layer onto a near 80% decline in investment in public water systems between 1977 and 2017, which has left many Americans exposed to aging and insufficient infrastructure, and at times, unsafe water. It also doesn’t make good economic sense: Estimates show the proposed cuts will result in the loss of 38,622 American jobs and $6.47 billion in economic output.
Enter: Big Plastic
In the United States, federal cuts will leave state and local governments trying to pick up the tab. Water systems have already raised water rates to cover existing funding gaps, causing a deepening water affordability crisis, only made worse by increasing water privatization. High water rates result in mounting household water debts and shut offs—a practice United Nations experts consider a violation of human rights.
Water insecurity only deepens our reliance on the manufactured “savior” to these crises: plastic packaged water. When the ability of water systems to do proper maintenance and infrastructure improvement is undermined, and communities can’t reliably access or trust safe water coming from the tap, they often turn to or are pushed onto bottled water.
Nearly 90% of Americans consume some bottled water, and 20% consume only bottled water. Bottled water is big business; in fact, it’s the most consumed beverage in the U.S. and worldwide. Globally, more than 1 million plastic bottles are sold every minute, and around 600 billion plastic bottles are produced every year. The global revenue of bottled water is projected to surge to $509.18 billion by 2030, up from $372.70 billion in 2025. The U.S. contributes the largest share of this market.
Central to the bottled water industry’s profiteering is fear mongering about tap water.
Despite having some of the overall highest quality tap water in the world, disinvestment in public drinking water infrastructure and deregulation has led some U.S. communities to have valid concerns about the safety of their public water. Over 9.2 million households still have toxic lead pipes bringing water to their taps, and nearly half of the U.S. has PFAS contaminating their water. These crises, as well as other safe drinking water violations, disproportionately occur in low-income, rural, Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities.
But the plastic bottled water industry explicitly targets these communities with advertisement campaigns and exploits drinking water crises for profit by mythologizing their product as a “safe solution” as opposed to the regrettable replacement it is in many circumstances.
First myth: bottled water is the safer, purer option.
Bottled water does not face the same health standards as tap water. Companies are required to test their water quality far less frequently than public water systems. And while public water systems always have to notify the public when there is a drinking water violation, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates bottled water as a food product, does not have this same requirement to inform consumers about contamination and recalls. Staff cuts at the FDA threaten to further weaken the enforcement of bottled water regulations.
Moreover, nearly two-thirds of plastic bottled water is repackaged tap water. The plastic bottles then add to that water toxic chemicals that can leach from the bottle itself, including PFAS and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals. It should come as no surprise that the amount of microplastics in bottled water is far higher than in tap water.
Second myth: Bottled water is inexpensive.
Bottled water is not affordable, costing households hundreds to thousands of times more per year than tap water, and further entrenching wealth disparities. In emergencies, municipalities and residents seeking an alternative water supply are often subject to price gouging for plastic bottles. Low-income communities with poor infrastructure are the least trusting of tap water and most reliant on bottled, paying more for an inferior commodity than wealthier households pay for a safe tap. Budget cuts will deepen water insecurity and lead more people to bottled water use.
Third myth: bottled water is sustainable and recyclable.
Ninety-nine percent of plastics are made from fossil fuels, plunging the planet deeper into the climate crisis. Communities on the frontlines and fencelines of fossil fuel extraction, plastic production, and landfill and incineration sites are recurrently exposed to highly toxic chemicals and polluted air, soil, and water. Plastic production itself requires a massive amount of water, both for the extraction of oil and for the cooling of plastic pellets. And bottlers are drying up local groundwater resources. Overall, an estimated 2,000 times more energy is needed to produce bottled water than to supply tap water.
And those bottles never go away. Municipalities have to pay massive sums to deal with plastic bottle pollution and the few bottles that are reclaimed. Plastic bottles most often end up in landfills or incinerators, are shipped overseas under the guise of “recycling” only to be dumped and open-burned, leading to further serious pollution, injustice, and greenhouse gas emissions. In all cases, plastic bottles—like all plastics—break up into micro- and nanoplastics, polluting our bodies and environment.
The bottled water industry is undermining safe public drinking water infrastructure and investment everywhere. According to 2016 estimates, it would take less than half of global annual bottled water sales to ensure safe drinking water supply across the world.
Federal cuts to drinking water programs and regulations will further erode trust in tap water, worsening water inequity and the plastic pollution crisis. It is critical that funding be redirected into public drinking water systems, away from corporate handouts and privatization of our precious freshwater resources.
Call your senators and representatives to oppose these proposed cuts to drinking water infrastructure and ensure the human right to public, safe water is protected.
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Israel's Blockade Causing 'Man-Made Drought' in Gaza: UNICEF
"Children will begin to die of thirst ... Just 40% of drinking water production facilities remain functional," said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder.
Jun 20, 2025
Israel's blockade of fuel entering Gaza is causing a "man-made drought," according to a warning from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
The humanitarian organization estimated Friday that just 40% of Gaza's drinking water-production facilities remain functional. UNICEF said water‑production plants are running on dwindling reserves and warned they could collapse entirely without fuel.
"If the current more than 100-day blockade on fuel coming into Gaza does not end, children will begin to die of thirst. Diseases are already advancing, and chaos is tightening its grip," said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder at a press briefing Friday morning. "Gaza is facing what would amount to a man-made drought. Water systems are collapsing."
News of Gaza's collapsing water system comes on the heels of a UNICEF report Thursday that more than 5,000 children were diagnosed with acute malnutrition in May. It found that 112 children have been admitted per day for treatment since the beginning of 2025.
"Every one of these cases is preventable," said UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Edouard Beigbeder. "The food, water and nutrition treatments they desperately need are being blocked from reaching them."
The shortages of basic nutrition are the result of Israel's total blockade of fuel entering Gaza, which began in March.
On Wednesday, the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) volunteer Olga Cherevko observed that water pumps had stopped working at a site for displaced people "because there's no fuel." She said she expected "a shutdown of more facilities if no fuel enters."
The strain goes beyond pumps. As The Guardian reported Friday, "Most of Gaza's wastewater treatment plants, sewage systems, reservoirs and pipes have been destroyed. In March, Israel cut off power supplies to the main desalination plants—a vital source of water for Palestinians in Gaza."
Meanwhile, many of Gaza's hospitals have been crippled. As of June 11, only 37% of health facilities in Gaza remain functional, with many of them only partially operational.
"Without fuel, hospital generators stop, oxygen production stops, and life-support machines fail. Ambulances can't move. Incubators go dark," Elder said. "Denying fuel doesn’t just cut off supply—it cuts off survival."
Israel has continued to block shipments of desperately needed humanitarian aid. According to a June 10 report from the World Food Program, only enough food aid entered the strip since May 19 to give the bare minimum sustenance to 300,000 people—far smaller than Gaza's population of over 2 million.
Palestinians who have poured into aid sites operated by the U.S.-Israeli run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) have been massacred by IDF soldiers on a regular basis. On Friday, another 35 Palestinians were killed and several others wounded by Israeli fire while waiting for aid near the Netzarim Corridor, according to sources at al-Awda Hospital who spoke with Al Jazeera.
In a speech before the U.N. Human Rights Council Tuesday, former High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay described it as "the most ruthless, prolonged and widespread attack against the Palestinian people since 1948."
"The goal of the Israeli government," she said, "is abundantly clear: the destruction of life in Gaza."
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