Israel uses water as a weapon against Palestinians. One way is force the relocation of Palestinians from their homes in order to maximize the land available for illegal settlements.
Israel directly controls 85% of water resources in the occupied West Bank and determines how the rest is distributed. Many Palestinian villages receive water only once every 15 days.
There are nearly 300 illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which house over 700,000 illegal Israeli settlers.
So far this year, in the West Bank, Israel demolished, seized, or forced Palestinian residents to themselves demolish at least 474 Palestinian-owned structures, 150 of which were donor-funded. As a result, Israel has displaced 656 people, including 359 children.
This represents a 32% increase from last year in the number of structures demolished or seized, a 145% increase in donor-funded structures demolished, and a near 70% increase in the number of people displaced (a 75% increase in children displaced), compared with the equivalent period in 2020,
The Palestinian community of Humsa-Al Baqai’a in Area C, in the northern Jordan Valley, is located in an area now designated by Israel as a “firing zone” for military training, making Palestinian residency and access prohibited. Since 2012, the residents have been displaced, and their homes destroyed, over 50 times while Israel carries out military training.
After a 2020 mass-demolition, the global humanitarian community provided the town with 20 water tanks, which Israel immediately confiscated.
Available water for West Bank communities is often less than 50 litres/person/day (l/p/d), compared with the WHO recommendation of 100 l/p/d. Yet all households in nearby illegal Israeli settlements are connected to piped water services and have a permanent unlimited water supply at affordable prices. Settlement water consumption rates are 300–440 l/p/d, particularly in settlements focusing on agriculture.
Recently, as temperatures rose past 104 degrees Fahrenheit, Israel’s military demolished the Palestinian West Bank village of Khirbet Humsa for the sixth time in less than a year.
The military destroyed 27 residential structures, as well as animal shelters and water tanks, and removed people’s food, leaving the community without food and water. Soldiers confiscated personal items, milk for children, clothes, personal hygiene products, and plants. Eleven households, home to 70 people (including 36 children) were displaced.
The village has never been allowed a connection to water, electricity, or sewage infrastructure.
Organized aggressions by individual settlers are also daily and widespread. In June, illegal settlers in the West Bank installed a fence around a water spring to prevent dozens of Palestinian shepherds and their herds from using it. The residents had suffered repeated assaults by the settlers as well as the denial of access to their water resources.
Sources: electronic intifada, imemc, imemc, hrw, al jazeera, ochaopt, 972