The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday that the severe water shortage in the Gaza Strip has reached critical levels, noting that nine out of ten people cannot access clean drinking water.

Rosalia Bollen, a UNICEF official in Gaza, said 600,000 people who had regained access to drinking water in November 2024 are once again cut off, Middle East Monitor reported.

“It’s really vital for thousands of families and children to restore this connection,” she said.

UN agencies estimate that 1.8 million people, over half of them children, urgently need water, sanitation and hygiene assistance.

The UN says the situation has deteriorated further following Israel’s decision on Sunday to cut power to the enclave, disrupting vital desalination operations.

For her part, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, condemned Israel’s decision describing it as a warning of genocide.

“GENOCIDE ALERT! Israel cutting off electricity supplies to Gaza means, among others, no functioning desalination stations, ergo: no clean water,” Albanese wrote on X.

On Sunday, Israeli Energy and Infrastructure Minister Eli Cohen decided to immediately halt electricity supply to the Gaza Strip, a decision Hamas considered a continuation of Tel Aviv’s war of extermination against Gaza.