Can You Drink Tap Water in Palestine?

Tap water in Palestine is not safe to drink. The situation differs significantly between the West Bank and Gaza, but bottled water is essential in both territories.

In the West Bank, the Palestinian Water Authority manages a water supply system that is treated at source, but chronic underinvestment, aging distribution infrastructure, and political restrictions on water access have created a system that is unreliable and frequently contaminated by the time it reaches consumers. Water supply is often intermittent — many West Bank communities receive piped water only a few days per week — and stored in rooftop tanks before reaching the tap, creating additional contamination risk. Residents of cities including Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron, and Jericho predominantly rely on bottled water for drinking, and visitors should do the same.

In Gaza, the water situation is a severe humanitarian crisis. The vast majority of water pumped from Gaza's coastal aquifer — the territory's sole water source — fails WHO safety standards due to seawater intrusion, sewage contamination, and agricultural runoff. The aquifer has been critically over-extracted for decades. Water treatment and desalination infrastructure in Gaza has repeatedly been damaged, leaving the population with extremely limited access to safe water. International health organisations have described Gaza's water crisis as one of the most severe in the world.

For the small number of journalists, humanitarian workers, and authorised visitors who access Palestinian territories, sealed commercial bottled water from established brands is the only safe drinking water option. In the West Bank, bottled water is widely available at shops and supermarkets throughout major cities. In Gaza, bottled water availability is subject to ongoing supply restrictions.