Description
Since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Israel has conducted a major military offensive against the group, placing the Gaza Strip under siege. This paper explores Israel’s employment of water as a military tool during operations. Building on research on water weaponization and siegecraft, it develops a typology of water usage in siege, applying it to the post-October 7 context. The typology identifies four patterns of action––restricting water flows, disrupting water provision chains, sabotaging water infrastructure, and unleashing water flows––arising from the intersection between the method of water weaponization (as a means or as a target) and the character of siege measures (direct or indirect). As the paper shows, Israel has resorted to all four practices to pressure militants into surrender, depriving Hamas of resources and support. However, their impact remains disputable. While achieving limited operational goals, Israel’s weaponization 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.
