Muhammad Shehada
Drop Site News / July 14, 2025
It’s 95F in Gaza with 60% humidity, the sun is turning tents into ovens. That’s exactly when Israel told Gazans if they dip their toes in the sea, they would be instantly murdered.
As Gaza endures yet another punishing heatwave — with temperatures soaring above 95°F (35°C) and humidity exceeding 60% — the Israeli military has issued a chilling order on Saturday: any Palestinian who dares to touch the sea will be murdered.
No swimming. No fishing. No escape. Not even from the sun.
Israel lined up almost the entire population in tents right in front of that very sea they are now banned from touching.
During the summer, those tents in the Mawasi desert area become like boilers and ovens inside as they bake under the sun. Between those tents are piles of garbage and rivers of untreated sewage. Israel had also obliterated Gaza’s water infrastructure. The sea was the last escape for Gazans from the smouldering heat and suffocating humidity.
Amid Israel’s full siege and closure of the enclave and its heavy restrictions on the entry of aid and food into Gaza way less than what is needed for basic human survival, Gazans’ only choice left to find something to eat is the sea.
That is exactly when Israel decides to turn the entire sea of Gaza into a kill zone.
The Israeli army’s statement, issued Saturday, reads with cold clarity:
“Urgent warning to Gaza Strip residents: We remind you that strict security restrictions have been imposed in the maritime area adjacent to the Strip, where entry into the sea is prohibited.
The IDF will deal with any violation of these restrictions. We urge fishermen, swimmers, and divers to refrain from entering the sea. Entering the sea along the Strip puts you at risk.”
Let that sink in: Israel is threatening to kill Palestinians for trying to cool off in the water.
And for those who wonder if this is just about “security”: Israel bombed one of the few remaining water trucks in Gaza on Monday — a truck that delivered desperately needed drinking water. This was not collateral damage. This was targeted, direct, and deliberate. A conscious decision by a full military chain of command to kill children by thirst and disease (something Israeli generals like Giora Eiland advocated for in the earliest months of the genocide).
Days earlier, 10 children were killed as they queued for drinking water. The Israeli military first claimed it was targeting a Hamas operative; a usual talking point to suppress backlash until this atrocity becomes “old news” by the time the truth is crystal clear. Later, Israel said it was a “technical error.”
Water is no longer a basic right in Gaza. It is a battlefield. And thirst has become a weapon.
Friends and family I speak to in Gaza tell me that water is now more scarce — and more terrifying — than food. Children collapse from dehydration. Parents have to choose whether to use the last clean water to drink or to cool down a fevered body.
The ban on touching the sea isn’t new — it’s just now clearer, and openly lethal. Long before October 7, I remember sitting on the beach with my late friend Ali, watching a horizon we could never access. A bullet hit the sand literally between us, fired from an Israeli gunboat enforcing the blockade. The soldier almost killed us out of casual indifference and boredom. A few millimeters to the left, and I wouldn’t be here to write these words.
This isn’t about rules or security zones. It’s about the erasure of Palestinian existence — even the smallest joys. Last year, when images of Gazans swimming in the sea surfaced online, it provoked outrage in the Israeli public: How could they swim? How dare they enjoy anything? As if joy, for Gazans, is a crime in itself.
Now, even dipping your toes in the water is a death sentence.
This is what domination looks like: Not just controlling land, borders, airspace — but bodies, heat, thirst, and even the right to feel relief.
In Gaza, the sea is no longer a symbol of hope or escape. It is a mirror, reflecting a world that lets this happen again and again — and calls it defense.
Muhammad Shehada is a Gazan writer and analyst
