Water and the Siege: Israel’s post-7 October Military Use of Water in Gaza

Since Hamas’ 7 October 2023 attack, Israel has conducted a major offensive, placing Gaza under siege. This article explores Israel’s employment of water as a military tool during operations. Building on research on water weaponisation and siegecraft, it develops a typology of water usage in siege, applying it to the post-7 October context. The typology identifies four patterns of action – restricting water flows, disrupting water provision chains, sabotaging water infrastructure and unleashing water flows – derived from the intersection between the method of water weaponisation (as a means or a target) and the character of siege measures (direct or indirect). As the article shows, Israel has resorted to all four practices. However, while achieving limited operational goals against Hamas, Israel’s weaponisation of water has caused a dramatic deterioration of Gaza’s humanitarian and ecological conditions. These findings call for greater international efforts to address Israeli policies and mitigate their consequences for civilians. At the same time, they highlight the potential of the proposed typology as a systematic framework to capture key features and implications of dynamics of contention in contemporary conflict.