Israeli Ambassador to Russia Alexander Ben Zvi made clear in an interview with TASS that Israel is using water as a weapon to try to force the Palestinian population out of the northern half of Gaza. “In the north, as people are moving away from there, we will not be providing water there,” he said. “Water is being supplied to the southern part. It is very simple [to explain] why it is not being provided to the northern part. You remember, we suggested that all the residents of the northern part relocate to the south. Therefore, we decided to supply water there so that no extra problems would emerge in the south for the civilians who have evacuated from the north. Prior to this, we thought that we would not do that until Hamas made some moves concerning our hostages. However, as we do not want a dire humanitarian crisis there, we decided to provide water supplies,” Ben Zvi said.
But Palestinian Ambassador to Russia Abdel Hafiz Nofal told TASS in a separate interview that for the most part, people are not relocating from the north to the south. “The fact is that people may be leaving, but only in very small numbers. Israel would like for them to go to Egypt or Jordan. But, we say that this is our land. We are not leaving it; we will stay right here,” he stressed. “Palestinians have suffered for 75 years; our refugees are [scattered] in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. We do not wish to see a repeat of that. Although the situation is very difficult now, no one wants to leave the Gaza Strip.”
