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The Israeli authorities have used access to water against Palestinians, systematically
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depriving people in Gaza of water in a campaign of collective punishment.
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That's according to a report published today by Med San San Frontier.
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MSF is asking the Israeli authorities to restore water in Gaza to the required level.
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Claire San Filippo is emergency manager with MSF and she joins us now on the line.
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Claire San Filippo, thank you for being with us this afternoon.
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Will you explain the situation as you see it?
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Thanks for having me, absolutely, and unfortunately, the situation is very grim.
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The Israeli authorities know that without water, lifehands, and in Gaza, they have used
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access to water as a weapon to collectively punish Palestinians.
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This is happening alongside the killing of civilians, the obliteration of the health
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care system, as well as the flattening of infrastructure, including homes and forced
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displacement of the population.
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So what we're seeing is that the denial of access to water creates destructive conditions
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And this is an integral part of the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
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And when you say the denial of access to water, I mean, is that an inevitable consequence
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of widespread bombing?
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Or do you believe that the destruction of water infrastructure that it was more targeted
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So what we've seen is definitely a systematic destruction and damaging of water infrastructure
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in Gaza, according to the UN today, nearly 90% of the water and sanitation infrastructure
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has been either damaged or destroyed.
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This includes disillination plants, boreholes, pipelines, and sewage systems.
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Palestinians have been injured, they've been killed whilst they were trying to get water
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and it cannot stop thinking about what Hanan, a Palestinian woman in Gaza City, told
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us she said, getting water is not supposed to be dangerous.
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It's not supposed to be dangerous.
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And yet a ten-year-old grandson was killed last July when he was standing in line with
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other children waiting for water.
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So we've seen this destruction, but we've also seen that the Israeli authorities have
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consistently blocked essential water related supplies from entering into the Gaza Strip.
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They've also blocked and limited access to non-governmental organisations to provide water
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to the population in need safely.
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Have you put all of this to Israel?
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We have done this repeatedly and unfortunately for now, you know, without consequences,
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we've obviously called the Israeli authorities, as you said, to immediately restore water
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to the people to the required level in the Gaza Strip, but also to allow humanitarian
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access at scale, including allowing material that is related to water and the sanitation.
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What we see on a daily basis at doctors without borders is the dramatic or the dramatic consequences
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for Palestinians of this denial of water.
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We're talking about hygiene and the lack of accessible clean water, soap, diapers, menstrual
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hygiene products that make the life of people extremely difficult impact their hygiene,
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but also their dignity.
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And we're also seeing the health consequences as the lack of water combined with the dire
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living conditions, extreme overcrowding, intense and the collapse health system create really
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a perfect storm for the spread of diseases.
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So we see in our consultations a lot of patients with skin diseases, with gastrointestinal
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diseases, including diarrhea, and that's very dangerous for children and pregnant women.
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And we also see, and that's something people maybe think of less, you know, but the crushing
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impact on people psychologically are mental health teams here again and again, that the
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lack of autism, major source of suffering of Palestinians and sometimes for some it drives
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despair so deep that it leads to societal thoughts.
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So that's really, you know, the strong message that that we have.
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And as a Palestinian said, we need water.
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It does not make sense.
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It's like we're asking the world for the essential of life.
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So what we are asking as MSF is to immediately restore water for people and to allow humanitarian
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access for international organizations to respond to the catastrophic needs in the Gaza
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As you mentioned that, I know that MSF has had a strange relationship with Israel.
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Are you currently able to work inside Gaza?
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We continue to work inside Gaza under our registration with the Palestinian authorities.
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Unfortunately, at the end of last year, we have lost our registration with the Israeli
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So we continue to work with our Palestinian colleagues only in the occupied territory and
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with support from international stuff remotely.
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And it is very difficult to work as the Israeli authorities have blocked systematically.
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The arrival of supply within the strip in a context again, where the humanitarian situation
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is nothing short of catastrophic because everywhere you look, you're overwhelmed by a sheer
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devastation and need.
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Claire Saint-Philippo of MSF, thanks for talking to us this afternoon.