Israel resumes water supply to southern Gaza, energy minister confirms

arifnsn October 15, 2023

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Israel has resumed the water supply to southern Gaza, Energy Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday, as one million people have evacuated the north of the Gaza Strip to escape a massive air assault.

“This will push the civilian population to the southern (part of the) Strip,” Katz said in a statement, a week after Israel had stopped supplying water to the entire territory as part of a “complete siege” on the Palestinian enclave.

He said the decision to resume the supply was taken after talks between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden.

Palestinians carry empty bottles and containers as they look to fill with water at the Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip on Sunday. Photo: AFP

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan earlier said he had been told that Israel had turned the water supply back on in southern Gaza.

“I have been in touch with my Israeli counterparts just within the last hour who reported to me that they have, in fact, turned the water pipe back on in southern Gaza,” Sullivan told CNN.

The municipality of Beni Suheila in southern Gaza later confirmed that the water supply had been resumed in the village.

Israel embarked on a withering air campaign against Hamas militants in Gaza after they carried out a brutal attack on Israel on October 7 that left more than 1,400 people dead in Israel.

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The widespread air assault has killed at least 2,450 people in the Palestinian territory.

An estimated one million people have been displaced in the first seven days of the conflict in Gaza, the United Nations agency supporting Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Sunday.

“The number is likely to be higher as people continue to leave their homes,” UNRWA director of communications Juliette Touma told Agence France-Presse.

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