Israel blows up Rafah water facility amid mounting war crimes accusations

Gaza - Video shared on social media appears to show Israeli soldiers blowing up a critical water facility in Rafah in southern Gaza.

Palestinians flee with their belongings as smoke rises following Israeli attacks in the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Palestinians flee with their belongings as smoke rises following Israeli attacks in the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.  © Eyad BABA / AFP

"On Friday, I discovered a video posted on Instagram by an Israeli soldier from the 601st Combat Engineering Battalion, showing the calculated demolition of a chief water facility in Rafah," Palestinian journalist Younis Tirawi wrote in a report published on Drop Site News.

Tirawi shared the video on X last week, noting that the Canada Well in the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood is the occupied city's primary water facility.

"Destruction of the Tal Sultan water reservoir in honor of Shabbat," the video caption reads, as translated from Hebrew according to Tirawi.

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The background music includes lyrics like "We will burn Gaza" and "For every house you destroy, we will destroy ten."

The journalist said the Israeli soldier has since made his Instagram account private and deleted his Stories amid accusations of war crimes.

Tirawi writes that Israel's deliberate targeting of water facilities is intended to hurt the entire Palestinian population, citing Giora Eiland, an advisor to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

"Israel, as I understand, closed the water supply to Gaza," Eiland said in a Hebrew-language radio interview, according to Tirawi. "But there are many wells in Gaza, which contain water which they treat locally, since originally they contain salt. If the energy shortage in Gaza makes it so that they stop pumping out water, that's good. Otherwise we have to attack these water treatment plants in order to create a situation of thirst and hunger in Gaza, and I would say, forewarn of an unprecedented economical and humanitarian crisis."

Israel accused of genocide and war crimes

An unexploded shell lies on a sand dune as a young boy sits near a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in the area of Tal al-Sultan in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
An unexploded shell lies on a sand dune as a young boy sits near a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in the area of Tal al-Sultan in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.  © Eyad BABA / AFP

Israel has killed at least 39,363 Palestinians in Gaza since October, according to the local health ministry. Its brutal bombardment and ground invasion have left the territory's entire population vulnerable to disease and starvation, and worsened access to clean water and sanitation facilities.

The United Nations last month accused Israel of committing the crime of extermination against Palestinians.

In an ongoing case brought by South Africa, the International Court of Justice has ordered Israel to "take all measures within its power to prevent" genocidal acts in Gaza and to halt its assault on Rafah. In a separate advisory opinion, the court ruled that Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal and constitutes, in part, apartheid.

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The International Criminal Court's top prosecutor has requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Gallant.

Despite calls for his arrest, Netanyahu traveled to Washington DC last week to deliver an address before Congress and meet with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. He also met with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at the latter's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

The far-right Israeli PM was met by mass protests and demands for a US arms embargo against Israel.

The US government continues to supply Israel with billions' of dollars worth of deadly weapons per year, some of which have been deployed in the destruction of Gaza.

Cover photo: Eyad BABA / AFP

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