Israel must stop using water as a ‘weapon of war,’ UN expert warns

Israel must stop using water as a ‘weapon of war,’ UN expert warns

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: A first consignment of fuel entered Gaza from Egypt late Friday after Israel agreed to a US request to allow limited deliveries to end a communications blackout that has halted aid convoys for two days.

UN agencies have spoken of an increasingly desperate situation for the 2.4 million Palestinians trapped inside the besieged enclave, which Israel has been pounding by land and air for the past six weeks.

The fuel delivery came as troops combed Gaza’s largest hospital in a search for the Hamas operations center that Israel says lies hidden in bunkers beneath.

Israel has vowed to “crush” Hamas in response to the group’s October 7 attack, when it broke through Gaza’s militarised border to kill about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and take about 240 hostages, according to Israeli officials.

The army’s air and ground campaign has killed 12,000 people, including 5,000 children, according to Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007.

In response to a US request, Israel’s war cabinet unanimously agreed to “provide two tankers of fuel a day to run the wastewater treatment facilities... which are facing collapse due to the lack of electricity,” national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said.

“We took that decision to prevent