Israel dismissed a claim Thursday by Human Rights Watch that it is denying water to the Gaza Strip and thereby committing genocide.

Human Rights Watch, an organization with a long and virulent anti-Israel history, issued a report titled “Israel’s Crime of Extermination, Acts of Genocide in Gaza: Authorities’ Widespread Deprivation of Water Threatens Survival.”

Gaza depends entirely on Israel for water and electricity — a situation that did not deter Hamas, then the governing authority in Gaza, from launching the October 7, 2023, terror attacks against Israel.

Initially, in the days immediately after the terror attack Israel cut off all supplies and utilities to Gaza. That was not in any way illegal: international humanitarian law does not require providing food and water to an enemy state.

However, as it became clear that the conflict would not be over quickly, and that there could be a major humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Israel restored services to Gaza and ensured that trucks of aid — including water — entered Gaza daily.

Hamas stole much of that aid — and also dug up water pipes to use in manufacturing rockets. It also damaged a pumping station on the Israeli side of the border that is necessary for pumping water to northern Gaza.

As the Times of Israel reported in June 2024, Israelis and Palestinians on both sides of the border worked together, even during the war, to repair that infrastructure and restore water supply, noting “direct contacts and cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian elements in Gaza took place early in the war to ensure the renewal of water supply from Israel to Gaza.”

The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli military authority that deals with humanitarian aid in Gaza and other Palestinian areas, noted on X that water supplies to Gaza exceed daily needs:

Israeli government spokesman David Mencer dismissed the Human Rights Watch report, calling it “full of lies” and comparing it to a recent report by Amnesty International that had to change the definition of “genocide” just so that it could accuse Israel of committing it.

Mencer cited some of the water statistics provided by COGAT, and noted that a desalination plant in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis “now works at full capacity.”

It’s “a race to the bottom between Amnesty [International] and Human Rights Watch — who can defame Israel more,” he said, claiming that they were “obsessed” with Israel. “These organizations exist to defame this country.”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.