Water in Southern Gaza remains 'limited' despite US urging Israel to end the shutoff

• Israel's officials told Jake Sullivan they 'they have in fact turned the water pipe back on in Southern Gaza.'
• In fact, the restoration of water service remains "limited," a US official told Insider the following day.

On Sunday, President Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, went on CNN's "State of the Union" and announced what sounded like a diplomatic and humanitarian win — Israel would restore water service to Southern Gaza, perhaps lessening the dire humanitarian crisis of its siege and bombardment after Hamas' terrorist attacks.

"I have been in touch with my Israeli counterparts, just within the last hour," Sullivan said, "who report to me that they have in fact turned the water pipe back on in Southern Gaza."

But it seems that Sullivan may have heard wrong. "Israeli counterparts agreed to restore water in south Gaza," a US national security official told Insider on Monday. "It is our understanding from partners on the ground that limited water has been restored."

When Insider asked the spokesperson to quantify "limited" or explain why water service had not been wholly restored, they did not immediately respond. This story will be updated if they do.

Israel's energy minister reportedly confirmed that Israel would resume supplying water to Southern Gaza after a discussion with the Biden administration. It did not specify whether the volume would be the same as pre-siege levels. Damage to water infrastructure from Israel's bombing campaign against Hamas could also be impeding the delivery of water.

Gaza's water shortage has exacerbated a crisis, as tens of thousands of refugees flee Israeli bombing or follow Hamas' edicts to shelter in place. Injuries from the airstrikes are stretching hospitals beyond their capacity as they run out of fuel to treat patients.

The fact that the restoration of water was "limited" was missed by those who had applauded Sullivan's statement as proof that the US could persuade Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to reduce the suffering of 2 million Gazan civilians during Israel's swift and deadly response to the attack by Hamas terror squads that killed more than 1,200 Israelis, including families, Holocaust survivors, and young children. Intentionally depriving civilians of food and water — part of the total siege ordered by Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant last week — is a war crime.

Earlier on Monday, a spokesperson for Gaza's Interior Ministry claimed that Israel had deprived Gaza of water for ten consecutive days. Inas Hamdan, a spokesperson for U.N. relief efforts in Gaza, told Insider that things had changed, but there was still a long way to go. "South areas started getting some water just yesterday," Hamdan wrote, "but the demand is huge and the crisis is still affecting thousands of people." Refugees at U.N. shelters in Gaza, she said, still have no access to clean water or flowing tap water of any sort.

Late last week, Israel ordered the evacuation of Gaza's northern half. But Israel hasn't entirely spared Southern Gaza from airstrikes. As of Monday, the Israeli government has not permitted humanitarian aid to cross into Gaza. All points of exit into Israel and Egypt are closed. On Monday, the EU announced that two planes would carry medicine, shelter items, and hygiene kits to Egypt, but whether Israel will allow their delivery across the Rafah border crossing remains unclear.

A spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces referred all questions to the Ministry of Defense. The Ministry of Defense did not reply to a request for comment.

Four pipelines once brought 3 billion gallons of drinkable water from Israel into Gaza each year, enough to supply roughly a quarter of the population's needs. More water was supplied by a UNICEF-funded desalination plant. But taps still ran dry, forcing some households to spend as much as a third of their income on drinking water delivered by truck. Since the siege, there have been reports of Gazans drinking sea water and hospitals being forced to clean wounds with water that has been contaminated with sewage.