Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office told CNN Sunday Israel has restored water to southern Gaza, but the director of the Palestinian Water Authority said he could not be sure it was true, because electricity has not been restored.

“I cannot confirm this at the moment because our water stations in Khan Younis, Gaza City, and central Gaza are not in a condition to receive and distribute water to the people,” Munther Shublaq, the director of the Water Authority in Gaza, told CNN.

“To enable the stations to receive and distribute water, we need electricity, which is currently cut off. The alternative is fuel to power the generator, which we also do not have. There may be pressure to restore the water supply, but I cannot confirm anything until the stations are ready.”

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan shared the development with CNN earlier Sunday.

“I can tell you this morning that I have been in touch with my Israeli counterparts just within the last hour who report to me that they have in fact turned the water pipe back on in Southern Gaza,” Sullivan told CNN.

Sullivan was pressed by CNN's Jake Tapper to identify — from the Biden administration perspective — the difference between Russia cutting off supplies to civilians in Ukraine and Israel doing the same in Gaza.

“First, thank you for saying that Israel is not Russia,” Sullivan first responded.
“Civilians are civilians,” Tapper said.
Sullivan responded, “Yes, absolutely they are. They deserve, as I said before, access to water and medicine, and we are working actively to ensure that that happens.”

More context: The US has held diplomatic conversations with the United Nations, Jordan, Egypt and others to allow access of humanitarian supplies to flow into Gaza as the crisis deepens.

Trapped residents in the Gaza Strip — the coastal enclave Hamas controls — have been pummeled by airstrikes since Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “complete siege” on the area, including halting supplies of electricity, food, water and fuel.