Israel is escalating its destruction of Palestinian property in the West Bank. This year so far, destruction of wells, water cisterns, and water networks is more than double that of previous years.
In one month (July), for example, Israel executed five demolitions of wells, cisterns, and infrastructure that left Palestinian farming villages entirely without access to water. Israel ripped out kilometres of pipeline that supplied water to houses and farmland, confiscated emergency water tanks, and confiscated equipment used to install the pipes.
Earlier in the year, Israel removed a 20-km water network serving 12 Palestinian towns. Residents now must transport water in tanks on tractors along poor roads. Transported water costs Palestinians nearly four times more than Israeli settlers pay.
When hundreds of residents of one town recently protested Israel’s diversion of their water to a new illegal settlement (their land, where almost 3,000 Palestinians live, had also been stolen, and given to five settler families)—Israeli forces bombarded them with tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets, and sound bombs.
Sources: ochaopt, imemc, ISM, UN humanitarian response, imemc
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Photo from “ISM Water Series: Hail of Tear Gas on Peaceful Villagers Protesting Settler Theft of Water Supply in Kufur Malik.