How Israel's war on Lebanon's water has become existential

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How Israel's war on Lebanon's water has become existential Submitted by Zaynab Mayladan on Mon, 11/02/2026 - 19:08 Across the country's south, where water infrastructure has been…

It was half past five in the afternoon when Bahij Abdallah saw a white object pass overhead.

He was outside a pumping station in Ebel el-Saqi, in the hills above Marjayoun, checking on an open water reservoir. He had sat down on a stone step with his phone in his hand, while three colleagues remained inside.

“Suddenly, it stopped in the air for a second, turned, and fell on the station,” Abdallah told Middle East Eye. “Then the smoke and the fire started.”

The phone flew out of his hand. He felt a wall of air, and then metal pushing into his body. He looked down and saw blood dripping from his face. His shoulder was burning. When he stood up, he saw that his shoe had been cut open.

Abdallah, an electrical maintenance employee with the South Lebanon Water Establishment (SLWE), the state utility that supplies drinking water to two governorates, had been doing what he does most days: running the station and monitoring it.

The facility is well known in the region and clearly marked, he said. “There are signs, and vehicles with the name and logo on them, that it belongs to the South Lebanon Water Establishment, which is a government body. And we were wearing the work uniform.”

The attack occurred on 9 June 2026, five days after Israel and the Lebanese government announced in Washington that they had agreed to a ceasefire.

Abdallah was taken to hospital where he underwent operations for severed tendons in his leg and shrapnel in his chest and shoulder. He spent two days in intensive care. He still walks slowly, cannot run, and is undergoing physiotherapy.

His colleagues were not injured, and the station itself kept running; the damage was structural rather than technical, hitting an office and storage room.

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