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THE IDF JUST DESTROYED A KEY RAFAH WATER FACILITY RACHEL CORRIE SPENT
HER LAST MONTH OF LIFE DEFENDING  
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Younis Tirawi
July 28, 2024
Drop Site
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_ “I was shocked when I saw the video. It’s not just that they
targeted this water facility; it’s the fact that they planted
explosives, celebrated the act on Instagram.... It's deeply cruel." _

The Japanese government financially supported the renovation of the
water facility by equipping it with solar energy panel back in 2018,
(Source).

 

On Friday, I discovered a video posted on Instagram
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soldier from the 601st Combat Engineering Battalion, showing the
calculated demolition of a chief water facility in Rafah. The video,
in three parts, shows Israeli soldiers planting explosives inside and
around the water pumps of a facility in the occupied city. The
video—which is captioned in Hebrew, “Destruction of the Tal Sultan
water reservoir in honor of Shabbat”—ends with footage of the
water facility being blown up. The soundtrack is a song produced by
soldiers of the 51st Golani Brigade with lyrics like, “We will burn
Gaza… shake all of Gaza… for every house you destroy we will
destroy ten.”

The water facility, also known as the Canada Well, is situated in Tel
Sultan Neighborhood, in the western part of Rafah city. U.S. human
rights activist Rachel Corrie, who was crushed to death in 2003 by an
Israeli military bulldozer while attempting to prevent demolitions in
the city, spent much of her time during the last month of her life
helping to protect the municipality workers at the Canada Well. The
workers were repairing damage done to the well due to the Israeli
military bulldozers in the area, according to Gordon Murray, one of
her fellow activists.

A report Corrie wrote
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her murder lays out the work she and other activists with the
International Solidarity Movement (ISM)—“human shield work with
the Rafah Municipal Water authority,” she described it—were doing
with local Palestinian workers to protect the well and local water
system. “The workers are currently building a barrier surrounding
the Canada Well…in the Canada-Tel El Sultan area of Rafah,” she
wrote. “This well along with the El Iskan Well…was destroyed by
Israeli bulldozers on 30th January [2003]. On several occasions the
internationals have witnessed shooting from military vehicles on the
settler road which passes along the northwestern edge of the
sand-dunes and agricultural areas on the outskirts of Rafah.” 

Corrie’s report added that the Canada Well had the capacity to
produce 35 percent of Rafah’s total water supply back then. The
defense of the water supply, she noted, led “to ISM activists coming
under fire.”

The soldiers who blew up the water system this week were carrying out
a strategy that has been explicitly articulated by the Netanyahu
government. In October, an adviser to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant,
Giora Eiland, laid out the strategy to deprive Palestinians not just
of water from outside Gaza, but to disrupt their ability to pump and
purify water locally, on the IDF’s radio station, GLZ. “Israel, as
I understand, closed the water supply to Gaza,” said Eiland in a
Hebrew-language interview
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“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.”

The interviewer pushed back. “Giora, I want to check that I
understand correctly. You are saying—get the residents of Gaza into
thirst, into hunger. These are the terms you are using?”

“You understood correctly,” he said. “If you want to topple the
Hamas regime, you won't achieve that merely through aerial attacks.
And a ground invasion, it has its benefits, [but] it also comes with
great risks, and it's unclear that the state of Israel needs to take
these right now.”

For months, Israeli forces have been targeting vital water resources
in the strip leading to starvation and, according to new reports,
worsening access to clean water. Last week, the Israeli military and
the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that Poliovirus has been
found in Gaza’s sewage, further intensifying the catastrophic
humanitarian situation in the occupied enclave. 

Our exposure of the video on Friday immediately sparked outrage, with
some describing it as evidence of war crimes. The soldier quickly made
his account private and deleted the stories.

The Canada well was built in 1999 with Canadian International
Development Agency funding. While initial reporting, based on the
soldier’s caption, called it a “reservoir,” according to
Gaza’s coastal municipalities water utility, the Canada well is the
main water facility in the city of Rafah and provides services to 50
percent of the city’s residents, mainly in West Rafah. 

Monther Shoblaq, Director General of the Coastal Municipalities Water
Utility, who oversaw the maintenance and renovation of the Canada
Well, described the destruction as "scandalous evidence" of the
Israeli army's deliberate targeting of water and sanitation
facilities. 

Monther told Drop Site in an interview that his organization had
provided the Israeli military with precise GPS coordinates for the
Canada Well and all water facilities in the Strip, in coordination
with the Red Cross. Despite these precautions, the well was blown up.
The Canada well remained operational throughout the war until the
Israeli military full invasion into the neighborhood in late May, he
said. 

“The solar panels at the facility enabled water services during the
war for tens of thousands of people in the area, even with the
electricity shutdown,” he said.  “I was shocked when I saw the
video. It’s not just that they targeted this water facility; it’s
the fact that they planted explosives, celebrated the act on
Instagram, and did so under the guise of honoring the Sabbath. It’s
deeply cruel. This is the Canada Well in Tal al-Sultan—one of the
most important water facilities in the city of Rafah.”

Monther recounts witnessing the complete destruction of one of
Gaza’s vital water facilities located in West Khan Younis by the
Israeli military. He requested that facility be designated a
deconflicted area through OCHA and UNICEF, providing details about the
employees and their families present inside. The military approved the
request, and CMWU restricted access to only employees and their
immediate family members. Despite this, during the Israeli military
operations in Khan Younis, the facility was struck without warning,
resulting in the deaths of four of its employees’ relatives. As a
result, the water facility, which housed Gaza's largest water tools
and equipment, was left and subsequently utterly destroyed.

In the north, too, Gaza City’s municipal government has repeatedly
reported deliberate attacks on water facilities in the city. A
statement by the municipality on July 15 warned that the city is
experiencing “a severe water crisis, with available water amounting
to only a quarter of the pre-aggression supply at best, covering only
40 percent of the city's area.” 

A BBC analysis based on satellite data from May 9, three days after
the Rafah invasion, found out that 50% of Gaza's water and sanitation
facilities had been damaged or destroyed since Israel began its
offensive following the Oct 7 attack.

_Update: Monday, July 29, 2024. The IDF has not yet provided a
comment, but, according to Haaretz
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army sources said senior commanders did not approve the destruction of
the facility. The military, Haaretz reported, is conducting an initial
probe, after which it will determine whether to open an
investigation._

 

_Guest post by Younis Tirawi
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-- A Palestinian journalist covering politics and security in the
Occupied Palestinian Territories, primarily sharing updates on X._

_Ryan Grim and Hind Khoudary
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reporting._

_Drop Site News is a reader-supported publication. Please consider
becoming a free or paid subscriber.  _

* Gaza
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* Israeli Occupation
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* water supply
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* Rachel Corrie
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