Israel Bombs Newly Built Water Desalination Plant in Gaza

Gaza, Palestine — For nearly two months, Palestinians in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood had access to water at any time — a welcome sense of stability in the depths of a genocidal war. On Aug. 24, that stability was disrupted by an Israeli airstrike that destroyed the newly built water desalination plant and damaged apartment buildings and tents.

Standing next to rubble and forcibly displaced from the airstrikes, Louay Al-Namnam told Unicorn Riot that at least 14 Palestinian families were now looking for “somewhere to live.”

“We were sitting safely inside the complex,” he said, “when suddenly someone approached us and told us to leave because the area was about to be bombed. A water desalination plant was struck first, and then the complex itself was hit.”

“We are all now out on the streets. We need somewhere to live! We couldn’t salvage any of our personal belongings—we escaped with nothing but the clothes on our backs, just as you see us now. What kind of truce is this? What kind of humanity allows this to happen to us?”

The water plant had provided free desalinated water to families and over a dozen shelters and collectives. The bombing worsens Gaza City’s drinking-water crisis which impacts 92% of the population.

According to Al Jazeera, the owner of the desalination plant estimated his losses to be at least $500,000 with the machines half of that amount. The plant which was totally destroyed was carefully assembled with hard to obtain equipment and materials.

Despite being condemned for war crimes Israel continues their acts of collective punishment toward all of Gaza, eradicating the infrastructure of all civil society from healthcare, education, to electricity and water plants. They now occupy over 70% of Gaza and are continuing daily attacks.

Since the U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Palestinian resistance fighters and Israeli forces in October 2025, Israel has killed over 1,400 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Officially the death toll has exceeded 74,000 Palestinians killed by Israel — with numbers likely in the hundreds of thousands — in response to the Oct. 7 attack which killed around 1,150 people.

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