On 12 October, the Israeli Energy Minister, Israel Katz, decided to cut off the water supply in Gaza and ordered the closure of one of the most important sources of supply in these territories: desalination plants. "This is vital for over two million people," the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) warned. In Gaza, 97 per cent of its water source is contaminated and totally dependent on the water it buys from Israel.

The provision of water to the Palestinians was conditioned by the alleged investments of the international community to build large desalination plants before the conflict was aggravated. A few years ago, Israel launched five major plants to ensure control of this common good. The construction and operation of some of these workshops were entrusted to the large Spanish companies and supported by Basque companies.

Basque businesses

The PPA (Anticorrosive Plastic Products) group, based in Erandio, provided the Sorek facility, near Tel Aviv, with a large diameter piping system for seawater collection and disposal. This group has received millionaire public aid from the Basque Government and, furthermore, the Provincial Government of Bizkaia granted it tax benefits. In the "execution" of that "complex work", the PPA group received the advice of the cooperative LKS, Grupo Mondragón. The Mondragon Corporation was also integrated into the Israeli transport sector when the Mondragon Cooperative Group was convened. According to LKS 2013 report, "this work must be carried out in collaboration with another partner at the UTE, with different interests".

According to the judicial documentation to which Hordago-El Salto has access, the PPA project in Israel was carried out through the subsidiary Maritime Business of the Mediterranean. According to this documentation, "the accounts of Israel's works were manipulated". The company was then administered by Ramón Cerdá and was sentenced in 2013 to 13 years in prison for tax fraud and forgery of documents. Cerdá is known for the creation and sale of over 10,000 fake companies, some of them like Noos or Gürtel, which were used as a fraud tool.

Another company based in Erandio, Fluytec, worked at the desalado Sorek. She worked with Basque consultant Idom, who has a major contract in the Israeli transport sector and wants to do with another. Sorek and Idom are members of the Spanish Association of Desalination and Justice. At the same time, this organization is part of the European Desalination Society lobby and consists of four associations, including the Israeli Desalination Society.

Fluytec has been sold as "an engineering capable of developing any necessary solution" and has received numerous public support from Basque public administrations, including grants to internationalisation programmes and a project sponsored by the Bilbao City Hall.

The FCC Group has been responsible for managing the desalination of the Had since 2006. At present, the companies FCC Aqualia and Acciona have been presented for the award of a new desalination plant in Israel: Sorek 2. Both companies are contractors of the Bilbao Bizkaia Water Consortium. Pius Cabanillas Alonso, a former minister and spokesperson for the Spanish Government in Acciona, worked as a member of the work management between 2007 and 2016.

Finally, it should be noted that the City of Bilbao committed to earmarking EUR 30,000 for a UNICEF project based on water supply to Gaza. The Basque Government received a visit in 2011 from an Israeli delegation of 15 companies working on innovative water treatment and water biotechnology. In addition, the Israeli company IDE Technologies, which is a "world leader in water treatment solutions", distributes its equipment through the Basque company Pasch, contractor of the Bilbao Bizkaia Water Consortium.