Israel caves to US pressure, begins supplying the Gaza Strip with water as Operation Iron Swords continues against Hamas.
By David Rosenberg, World Israel News
Israel resumed supplying the Gaza Strip with water Sunday, days after it cut off all water and energy transfers to the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.
Following the terrorist invasion of southwestern Israel on October 7th, the Israeli government shut off the supply of electricity, water, and gas to the Gaza Strip.
Simultaneously, the Israeli military has conducted an intense air campaign against Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups operating in the Strip.
Israel warned Gazans over the weekend to evacuate the northern half of the Gaza Strip, telling the more than 1.1 million residents to move close to the Egyptian border as the IDF intensifies its counter-terror campaign.
Over the last two days, however, the Biden administration has quietly applied pressure on Jerusalem to soften its handling of the Gaza Strip, warning that without Israeli water and electricity, the 2.2 million residents of the coastal enclave could face a humanitarian crisis.
While Israel has publicly vowed not to restore water or energy transfers to the Strip until the roughly 130 Israelis abducted by Hamas are returned, two Israeli officials told Axios that Jerusalem has already resumed supplying Gaza with water.
“No water spigot will be opened,” Energy Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) said a week earlier, when Israel froze water transfers.
The Biden administration also urged Israel to pause its bombing of the southern Gaza Strip, following Egypt’s demand that a “humanitarian corridor” be created from Gaza City down to Rafah and Khan Younis in the southern Strip.
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told CNN Sunday that Tzachi Hanegbi (Likud), Israel’s National Security Advisor, confirmed to the Biden administration that Israel has resumed supplying water to the southern portion of the Gaza Strip.