• A rumor that Israel opened a "sewage dam" into Gaza's main river, flooding both the river and Gaza's coastline with wastewater, spread on social media in March 2026. The claim spread alongside a video showing a brown plume, seemingly sewage water, fanning out into the Mediterranean. We are unable to verify the veracity of the claim with a primary source.

• Prior reporting on a similar claim from 2015 indicates that it is unlikely the claim is real or that such dams even exist in Gaza.

• Gaza is currently suffering from a wastewater crisis due to Israel's destruction of most of the territory's infrastructure, including all of its wastewater treatment facilities. This has led to the accumulation of sewage in tent encampments, and that sewage can stream out towards the sea and create plumes similar to what's seen in the video. Examples of such plumes can be seen in Google Maps satellite images.

• Snopes will update this report if additional information surfaces. We have reached out to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the U.N.'s main humanitarian body for Palestinians and Palestinian refugees, as well as to the Instagram account of a Palestinian journalist who appeared to be the source of the video, and await responses.

In March 2026, a post (archived) from the account of Turkish media company TRT World spread across Instagram. The post claimed that Israel opened a "sewage dam" into Wadi Gaza, the territory's main river, filling it and Gaza's coastline with wastewater. Attached to the post was a video of what appeared to be brown wastewater flowing out to the sea and forming a discolored plume of sewage along the coastline.

The full text of the post read:

Israel opened the sewage water dam into the Wadi Gaza stream, polluting the river and causing untreated waste to mix with seawater, effectively polluting the coastal environment as the sewage flows through the valley and into the Mediterranean.

The Wadi Gaza is a seasonal wetland and waterway, and the only significant surface water source in Gaza.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DWg3I4hDpEV/

Posts repeating the claim from TRT World accounts on other social media channel, such as TikTok (archived) and Facebook (archived), spread on those platforms, too. The claim and video were also widely viewed on X (archived). Snopes readers sent emails asking whether the claim was true.

Previous news reporting about a similar claim found no such sewage dam a decade ago, and we found no evidence that Israel has built one since then. However, Snopes could not independently verify with primary sources that the 2026 claim is false. Therefore, we have not rated this claim.

Snopes has reached out to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the U.N. humanitarian agency that supports Palestinians (Gaza is a Palestinian territory) and Palestinian refugees, by email in an attempt to verify the claim's veracity. We have also messaged TRT World as well as the Instagram of a Palestinian journalist named Hatem Hany, who appears to be the original source (archived) of the video, to seek verification of the claim about the dam. We will update this story if and when we receive a response.

While the specific claim that Israel opened a sewage dam into Wadi Gaza was unproven as of this writing, the rumor tapped into verifiable reports that Israel's near-complete destruction of Gaza's infrastructure has worsened the territory's ongoing wastewater sanitation crisis. Satellite image evidence shows that plumes of wastewater frequently fan out across swaths of Gaza's coastline, often with no connection to Wadi Gaza.

Previous sewage dam claim debunked

In 2015, news outlets Al Jazeera and AFP reported on heavy rainfall that made the Wadi Gaza breach its banks and flood Gazans' homes. Both news agencies initially reported that Israel had opened dams that resulted in parts of Gaza flooding.

Al Jazeera later retracted its article. In its retraction, Al Jazeera said there were no dams of the type that could be opened in southern Israel.

AFP then fact-checked its original story, coming to the same conclusion that such dams did not exist. Julie Trottier, a Belgian hydrology expert, reportedly told AFP at the time that the terrain in southern Israel was not suited to the construction of a dam.

Snopes did not find recent evidence or reporting of any such dam existing or opening in 2026. Social media posts spreading the rumor did not feature any images or videos of these dams.

Gaza's wastewater crisis

Plumes of sewage in the seawater off of Gaza's coast, such as those seen in TRT World's video, are real, and they commonly occur without the release of outside waste into Gaza's main river. The situation has significantly worsened since the Israel-Hamas War began in 2023 because of Israel's blockades and bombardment of Gaza, according to reports from the BBC and the UNWRA.

In August 2024, the BBC reported on Gaza's sewage contamination, including with satellite images and photos of streams of sewage flowing out to the sea and creating brown plumes in the water. These streams appeared to begin in tent encampments and were entirely disconnected from Wadi Gaza.

Google Maps satellite imagery dating to 2026 (without a specific month) provided evidence confirming the images in the BBC's article. This can be most clearly seen off Gaza's seaside Al-Shati Camp, where it appears a stream of water that flows out to the Mediterranean and discharges into a brownish plume that is clearly a different color from the seawater around it. That stream, which is in the photo below, appears whitish as it rushes out to sea.

(Google Maps)

Similar plumes also are visible in other places (such as these two locations west of Gaza City) where streams from camps or roads can be seen snaking toward the sea and discoloring portions of the coastal water. The most recent Google Maps satellite imagery of the mouth of Wadi Gaza available at the time of this writing did not show a visible plume.

The UNRWA noted in its March 31, 2026, situation report that part of what makes living conditions in these encampments dire is "water and sewage accumulation," implying that the camps do not have the means to discharge enough sewage to keep it from accumulating.

But even if the camps could flush away their human waste, there's no infrastructure in Gaza to treat that waste before it would flow out to sea. Researchers with United Nations University, a research and training institute of the U.N., reported in January 2026 that there are "no functional wastewater or desalination treatment plants" remaining in Gaza. This aligns with a September 2025 report from the U.N. Environment Programme finding that "none of Gaza's wastewater treatment facilities are currently operational."

Prior to the Israel-Hamas War, Gaza already struggled from a persistent water crisis, wastewater treatment included. In a September 2018 report, researchers from RAND, a research organization, said enough sewage water flowed from Gaza into the Mediterranean Sea daily to create "extreme health security risks" for Gaza, Israel and Egypt. The researchers noted a 5-year-old boy in Gaza died after swimming in seawater polluted by sewage in July 2017.

At that time, there were four wastewater treatment facilities operating in Gaza, based on the previously mentioned U.N. Environment Programme report. Between 2018 and 2020, two new wastewater treatment facilities went online in Gaza, which "helped to limit volumes of wastewater entering the sea."

Prior to those two wastewater treatment plants going online, the report said, minimally treated wastewater, as well as the remaining 25% of wastewater not captured by the territory's sewage system, was regularly discharged into the sea.

The UNRWA reported on March 31, 2026, that its teams do attempt to collect and safely dispose of solid waste in its emergency shelters and their surrounding areas. However, what it doesn't collect is unlikely to be treated at all before entering the sea, since the territory now has no facilities that can treat it.

Gaza has suffered from an electricity crisis since October 2023, according to the U.N. and data it collects from the Gaza Electricity Distribution Co.  A story from Al Jazeera said that as recently as March 29, 2026, Gazan residents were still living without reliable access to electricity.

Sewage flow from Gaza into the Mediterranean was already posing "extreme health security risks" when the territory had four operational wastewater treatment facilities on a fluctuating power supply. It's likely the issue is far worse now, with zero such facilities and without reliable access to electricity, even without any open dams upstream to flood Wadi Gaza with outside sewage.

Sources:

"ARTICLE RETRACTED." Al Jazeera, 25 Feb. 2015, www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/2/25/article-retracted. Accessed 2 Apr. 2026.

Efron, Shira, et al. "The Crisis of the Gaza Strip: A Way out Gaza's Water and Sanitation Crisis: The Implications for Public Health." RAND, 26 Sept. 2018.

"Gaza - Google Maps." Google Maps, maps.app.goo.gl/Kr2m3LLnPFg4enZd8. Accessed 2 Apr. 2026.

"GAZA / ELECTRICITY CRISIS." UNifeed, UN, 6 Mar. 2025, media.un.org/unifeed/en/asset/d333/d3334996. Accessed 2 Apr. 2026.

"Gaza Strip Electricity Supply." United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Occupied Palestinian Territory, www.ochaopt.org/page/gaza-strip-electricity-supply. Accessed 2 Apr. 2026.

"Israel Sewage Dam - Google Search." Google.com, www.google.com/search?q=israel+sewage+dam&sca_esv=dba3b81a402183e1&sxsrf=ANbL-n4mUKX6yBHBA2KmfncIJUYueg5iZg:1775161934515&ei=TtLOaYKRH5_fp84Pgcm0uAM&start=0&sa=N&sstk=Af77f_cbOt-y3wcDQy8qxeT8KEyCwZhCcQ4BYWT9sc_cQEkLvTcc6TmUSUKW3RJWqP0rATMRmLvY-6An-wOZ7fsbtjcfSejfnJMseeLEsHdet-CcBHsw42jJmiM62zH6oSaD&ved=2ahUKEwiC8JnEgdCTAxWf78kDHYEkDTc4ChDy0wN6BAgKEAQ&biw=2560&bih=1271. Accessed 2 Apr. 2026.

Maram Humaid. "Living in the Dark: Gaza's Struggle for Electricity." Al Jazeera, 29 Mar. 2026, www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/3/29/living-in-the-dark-gazas-struggle-for-electricity. Accessed 2 Apr. 2026.

Nour, Ahmed. "Diseases Spread in Gaza as Sewage Contaminates Camps and Coast." Bbc.com, BBC News, 26 Aug. 2024, www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2kjzk75eplo. Accessed 2 Apr. 2026.

Sarsour, Amal, and Nidhi Nagabhatla. "Breaking Point in the Gaza Strip: The "Cracking" of the WASH-Health Nexus since October 2023." United Nations University, 25 Jan. 2026, unu.edu/publication/breaking-point-gaza-strip-cracking-wash-health-nexus-october-2023. Accessed 2 Apr. 2026.

United Nations Environment Programme (2025). Environmental Impact of the Escalation of Conflict in the Gaza Strip: Second assessment of environmental damage and recommendations for recovery and reconstruction planning. Nairobi. https://wedocs.unep.org/20.500.11822/48536. Accessed 2 Apr. 2026.

"UNRWA Situation Report #215 on the Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip and the Occupied West Bank, Including East Jerusalem." United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the near East, 31 Mar. 2026, www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-215-humanitarian-crisis-gaza-strip-and-occupied-west-bank. Accessed 2 Apr. 2026.

Ward, Hazel, and AFP. "Gaza Floods: Dispelling the Myth about Israeli "Dams."" Yahoo.com, Internet Archive, 27 Feb. 2015, web.archive.org/web/20160913181212/www.yahoo.com/news/gaza-floods-dispelling-myth-israeli-dams-153701865.html. Accessed 2 Apr. 2026.