Nablus – Ma’an – A report prepared by the National Office for Land Defense and Settlement Resistance said that the Israeli occupation authorities control about 88% of the Palestinian water sources in the West Bank, and allow the colonists to have free, unimpeded access to them and to benefit from them, whether for drinking and domestic uses or for purposes Agricultural and industrial projects in the colonies.
The office added in the weekly settlement report issued today, Saturday, that international and Israeli studies showed that the Israeli colonizer in the West Bank consumes nine and a half times more water than the Palestinian citizen.
He added that the water available to the Palestinians in the West Bank amounts to 105 million cubic metres, which is less than what was available in 1995 in the Oslo Accords, which was 118 million cubic metres. As for the amount of water needed according to international standards, it amounts to 400 million cubic metres, meaning that the Palestinians get A quarter of what
they need.
He pointed out that the plan to seize water springs in the West Bank is one of the tools of the colonialists’ seizure of larger areas of Palestinian land, and turning them into a vital field for colonial activities.
He stated that the picture appears as follows: The occupation authorities seize and seize Palestinian groundwater and surface water, and sell what they deem necessary to the Palestinian side through the Israeli water company ‘Mekorot,’ and leave the colonists the freedom to seize spring water, specifically in the area classified as (C). ).
The report explained that the total number of springs in the West Bank is estimated, according to the Palestinian Hydrologists Society, to be 714 seasonal and permanent, of which about 350 are permanent, ranging from weak, medium, and abundant.
56 of these springs are located near the Israeli settlements, with about half of these springs located in Ramallah Governorate, i.e. 29, followed by Nablus with 10 springs, while the rest is distributed amo
ng the rest of the governorates of the West Bank, especially Salfit and Bethlehem, with a rate of 30 springs that were originally completely controlled by the colonists, without the possibility The Palestinians accessed them before the aggression. As for the rest, a number of them, especially in the circumstances of the aggression, were transformed into military zones, which citizens are prohibited from accessing or approaching by military orders from the occupation army, and through acts of intimidation, threats, and violence committed by the colonizers as well.
The report pointed out that the occupation authorities claim that they treat springs as environmental sites that must be preserved and protected, but in reality they work to deprive Palestinians of benefiting from them as environmental sites or as a source of water necessary for drinking and agriculture, and at the same time encourage the establishment of colonial blocs. Close and adjacent, and turning them into sites to rebuild the colonists’ relat
ionship with nature, through paths and sites for hiking, recreation, and ‘Jewish purification,’ as well as using them as tourist attractions is a step on the path to colonizing them by transferring the colonists from Israel to the areas of the West Bank, and this is practically the same policy that it adopted. The occupation authorities in the Galilee, Coast and Negev regions.
The report continued, “One of the reports of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which indicates that these springs are located near the colonies and that 30 springs have been completely seized and Palestinians have been prevented from entering them, while the remaining 26 springs remain at risk of being seized by the colonizers, As a result of their regular tours and periodic work.
According to the OCHA report, following the reduction or elimination of the Palestinian presence, the colonists begin to develop the springs into tourist attractions to support the tourist infrastructure of the co
lonies with the aim of consolidating them. The colonists begin to transform the springs areas into tourist areas by building ponds, picnic areas, and changing the names. And placing signs with the names of the springs in Hebrew, which remain the largest source of water for irrigation and an important source for home consumption for the Palestinians.
The report indicates that the seizure of the springs is an extension of colonial expansion in the West Bank, noting that it is illegal according to international law.
As for the ‘Kerem Nevot’ organization concerned with studying Israeli land policy in the West Bank, it also confirms that ‘there are more than 60 springs in the center of the West Bank, which the colonists covet through restoration and renovation work for about half of them, expropriating ownership from their owners, and preventing citizens from approaching them.’ Among them is that seizing the springs is part of a much larger, ambitious plan that seeks to seize the remaining open spaces in the Wes
t Bank, with the aim of isolating Palestinian villages, rather than isolating the colonies, and seizing more lands.
This is being implemented, according to the organization, by creating bathing areas and hiking trails, establishing graves for colonists’ spiritual figures as “sacred sites,” and developing picnic sites, all of which are located on private land owned by Palestinians.
The office said that the colonists not only cut and destroy the water supply lines that supply the villages with water from the Israeli company Mekorot from time to time, but also prevent them from filling water from the springs of their villages, as is the case with the colonists in the ‘Eli, Shilo, and Shivot Rachel’ colonies with the water springs. Surrounding the village of Qaryut in Nablus Governorate.
He added that after the colonists took control of Ain Qaryut and the Gorges, and blocked the roads with dirt mounds to the other springs, the people of the village, known for its many springs, had no choice but to buy water at
a high price to meet their need for drinking water and irrigating their crops.
Recently, in the context of aggression, the colonists seized one of the three most important springs out of five owned by Qaryut, and prevented its 3,000 residents from approaching it, after they annexed it to the colonies’ area of ??influence, which seizes 17,000 out of 21,000 dunums of land. Village lands.
Since the start of the aggression on October 7, the colonists have not left the ‘Ain Silun’ area, where they made extensive changes in the area, by placing umbrellas, chairs, and children’s toys, and giving it a tourist character. They took turns guarding the place, to prevent the Palestinians from approaching under threat. Weapons, after they destroyed a children’s garden that the village had established in the place, and the roof of the water tank of that spring, which had covered the village’s need for drinking water, domestic uses, and agriculture in previous years, and they turned that tank into a swimming pool for them.
The colonialist attacks and their ambitions to seize water springs are not considered individual acts, or spontaneous practices, as much as they are an organized act that integrates with the occupation authorities’ seizure of Palestinian water in general, both groundwater and surface water.
The report pointed out that the three Solomon’s Pools in the town of Artas, south of the city of Bethlehem in the West Bank, which have an area of ??more than 30 dunums and are surrounded by a similar area of ??natural reserves, are a clear example of this, as the colonists repeatedly storm the pools, with the protection of the army, to perform rituals. Talmudic, and citizens seriously fear its seizure, and their inability to restore and develop it, due to the expansion of the ‘Efrat’ colony dangerously close to it.
Residents of the town of Husan in the Bethlehem Governorate also fear their water springs from being seized by the colonists, especially in the ‘Ain al-Hawiya’ area, which supplies dozens of farmers with wate
r to irrigate their crops, after the colonists managed to seize about 4,000 dunams of the town’s land, to build the ‘Beitar’ colony. “Ilit” in the “Gush Etzion” settlement bloc. They also prevent citizens from restoring or rehabilitating the spring, under the pretext that it is located within lands classified as “C.”
The chances of the people of the village of Nabi Saleh, west of Ramallah, are almost non-existent. They were the ones who were benefiting from ‘Ain al-Qaws,’ which is located near their village, due to the colonialists seizing it and renaming the place after the colonizer ‘Ma’an Meir,’ and it became forbidden for citizens to benefit from or approach it. definitely.
In Dura al-Qara’, the cold-blooded killing of citizen Muhammad Fawaqa (21 years old) while he was near the water spring in the village on the eighteenth of last October confirms how risky it is for the Palestinian citizen to try to reach the water springs. Especially after Israel armed the colonists and absorbed them into militias or
ganized into ’emergency teams’ and others.
On the lands of Palestinian citizens in the villages of Salem, Beit Jinn, Deir al-Hatab, and Azmut, to the east of the city of Nablus, there are water springs from which the residents of these towns benefit, the most important of which is the ‘Kabeer Spring’ spring.
By decision of the occupation authorities, the name of that spring became ‘Ain Kfir’, which is the name of one of the military nurses who was killed in the battle of ‘Shaqif Castle’ in southern Lebanon in 1982.
The nearby “Alon Moreya” colony claims that it is located within its area of ??influence on the lands of a state designated by the commander of the occupation forces in the West Bank based on a military order he issued as a model for this conflict over water and its sources in the West Bank, which resulted in great suffering by depriving citizens of springs they had frequented for generations.
The condition of the water springs in the Palestinian Jordan Valley is not better than the examples we
discussed above, as the springs in this area are threatened.
According to the weekly settlement report, a group of colonists seized the ‘Khalat Khader’ spring in Khirbet Al-Farisiya in the northern Palestinian Jordan Valley, and established a water collection pond near it, in a move that gives clear indications of the intention to further seize spring water and collect rainwater in the region, and deprive the Palestinians of The right to access it.
At the beginning of this year, the colonists also seized the Ain al-Hilweh spring in the northern Jordan Valley, and carried out construction and restoration work in its vicinity. They later established a park in the area, and deprived the Palestinians of exploiting the spring, which is considered the main source of water for dozens of families.
At the level of the field situation, the occupation authorities are launching a brutal aggression against the West Bank in parallel with their brutal aggression against the Gaza Strip, and promising the colonists more we
apons, including those who are not participating in the ’emergency teams’ or ‘alert teams,’ which portends dire consequences and deterioration. Wide in situations.
These promises are accompanied by threats made by extremist ministers to turn the West Bank into a new Gaza Strip, as announced by the Israeli Minister of Finance and Minister of Settlement in the Ministry of the Extremist Army, Bezalel Smotrich, during his visit to the ‘Bat Hefer’ colony in the path of the apartheid wall near the city of Tulkarm. .
Smotrich said that Israel must start a “defensive” war in the West Bank, blocking the chances of establishing a Palestinian state, because “everyone who talks about establishing a Palestinian state is wasting the blood of the colonizers and endangering the existence of the state,” threatening the Tulkarm Governorate to turn it into rubble like Gaza.
In such an atmosphere, which prevails in the occupation government and enjoys broad support from its Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the colonists fi
nd their opportunity, not only to steal the spring water in the West Bank, and to pursue Bedouin and herding communities, but to expand wherever they can, and to establish more colonial outposts. Farms and pastoralism, especially in the Bethlehem and Nablus governorates.
Last week, colonists set up two tents on the lands of the Jabal Abu Zeid and Khallet al-Qatn areas, part of which belongs to the lands of Deir Artas, south of Bethlehem, with the aim of seizing additional areas of land in order to expand the borders of the Efrat colony.
In this context, the occupation forces and colonialists closed agricultural roads in the town of Al-Khader with cement cubes, to deprive farmers of access to their lands.
In the Kaisan Wilderness, the colonists stormed the ‘Umm Zaytouna’ area, and stole agricultural supplies and electrical tools. Others set fire to lands in the ‘Oued Qadis’ area in the village of Husan, planted with vine and olive trees, which led to the destruction of a number of them, while colonists from
‘ Beitar Illit built a colonial road in the village lands through agricultural lands in the ‘Oued Qadis’ area, reaching the ‘Ain al-Taqa’ area, with a length of approximately 3 km, with the aim of connecting the colonial outposts to each other.
To the south of the city of Nablus, a bulldozer belonging to the “Magdolim” colony closed two agricultural roads in the northern area of ??the town of Qusra, in order to complete the work of leveling lands in the area and uprooting the remaining olive trees for the purpose of colonial expansion.
A group of colonists attacked a number of homes in the southeastern area of ??the town under the protection of the occupation army, which led to the outbreak of confrontations with the occupation forces and the colonists, who fired live bullets at the citizens, resulting in a young man (29 years old) being injured by live bullets in the abdomen.
In the neighboring village of Jalud, colonists bulldozed areas of land south of the village, in preparation for seizing them, notin
g that the bulldozing was only meters away from citizens’ homes.
Others began construction and expansion work in the ‘Shafi Shomron’ colony on the lands of Sebastia, Naqoura, and Deir Sharaf, pouring concrete on citizens’ private lands, and trying to impose a fait accompli to seize more lands, and targeting historical and archaeological sites in that region.
The weekly violations documented by the National Land Defense Office were as follows during the reporting period:
Jerusalem: Bulldozers belonging to the occupation municipality in Jerusalem demolished a three-story residential building in the town of Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and prevented citizens from being in its vicinity, and demolished a printing press in the town of Al-Issawiya belonging to citizen Muhammad Alyan.
It also demolished for the second time in a month commercial establishments belonging to the sons of the late Bassam Fazza Al-Omari in the town of Hizma, northeast of the city of Jerusalem, which consisted of two commercial stor
es, and before them shops, a car wash, and a sheep barn owned by Al-Maqdisi Jabr Muhareb Najeeb, and agricultural land and retaining walls were bulldozed in the Tablas area of ??the town of Hizma. .
The occupation municipality crews also stormed Hosh Adila in the Ras al-Amoud neighborhood, manually demolished the house of citizen Mahmoud Adila, and delivered demolition notices to a number of shops located near the Jaba Bridge in the Al-Ram area of ??occupied Jerusalem, including the Jaba Bridge, which is located above the targeted street and connects the towns of Jaba and Al-Ram. With the aim of expanding the street between the two aforementioned checkpoints to facilitate the passage of colonists from occupied Jerusalem to the West Bank settlements after the occupation completed the construction of a vehicle tunnel under the Qalandiya military checkpoint, to become a main colonial road linking Jerusalem to the West Bank and used by the colonists only.
Hebron: Colonists attacked Bani Naim municipality employ
ees, while they were working on extending water lines in the Qasr area in the Bani Naim wilderness, which led to the injury of Deputy Mayor Nader Hamidat to bruises.
In the city of Hebron, colonists attacked homes in Wadi Al-Husayn with stones, and issued threats, insults, and obscene expressions, which sparked a state of panic among children and women.
Settlers, protected by Israeli occupation soldiers, attacked the citizen Jamal Obaid Ahmed Awad (46 years old) and his son Muhammad (23 years old) from the town of Yatta, with sharp tools, and stabbed them several times, while they were crossing the ‘bypass road’ near the Beit Ainun roundabout, east of Hebron, causing them to be injured. With moderate injuries, they were transferred to Al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron.
Bethlehem: A group of colonists attacked farmers while they were harvesting wheat in the village of Al-Minya, southeast of Bethlehem, and seized large quantities of the crop in the lands of ‘Wadi Al-Abyad,’ ‘Abu Zaarour,’ and ‘Fateh Sadra’ in the T
uqu’a Wilderness.
Colonists also set fire to lands in the ‘Wadi Qadis’ area in the village of Husan, west of Bethlehem, planted with vine and olive trees belonging to citizens of the Hamamra and Shusha families, which led to the destruction of a number of them. Colonists uprooted (300) vine seedlings and (100) olive seedlings. And (100) almond seedlings, and they destroyed a ‘vineyard’ and vegetable crops (zucchini and hatchlings) in the ‘Ahmadiyya’ lands in the Faghur area, belonging to citizens of the town of Al-Khader.
Ramallah: A group of colonists attacked the outskirts of the town of Deir Dibwan, east of Ramallah, from the eastern side, and burned tents and a barn for sheep, belonging to citizens Muhammad Nazzal Muhammad Musabih and Islam Nazih Awada.
In the village of Umm Safa, colonists stormed the village and set up a number of tents in the ‘Ras al-Jabal’ area, which belongs to the people of the villages of Umm Safa, Deir al-Sudan, and Ajul, in preparation for seizing it, which led to the outbreak
of confrontations, during which the occupation forces fired poison gas bombs at the citizens. Meanwhile, colonists stormed the village of Jaljaliya and stationed themselves at the ‘Salaa’ spring.
Nablus: Under the protection of the occupation forces, colonists stormed the archaeological site in the town of Sebastia, northwest of Nablus, and attacked shop owners in the area, forcing them to close their doors.
Others set fire to lands located near the main entrance to the village of Duma, south of Nablus, which led to the fire spreading among the olive fields and crops.
In the village of Burqa, colonists attacked citizens’ homes in the “Ras Al-Muhallal” area, east of the village, and burned agricultural lands and crops, and a barn for raising sheep.
Salfit: Settlers set fire to large areas of olive groves, belonging to citizens Saleh al-Nimr and Rashid al-Nimr from the town of Kafr al-Dik, while others attacked the vehicles of citizens who rose to put out the fires and assaulted a number of them, including
the citizen Mufid Fawzi, who was taken to the hospital as a result of being assaulted. After his vehicle was destroyed.
Al-Aghwar: The occupation forces demolished four houses in the city of Jericho. In the Al-Mandaralat area adjacent to Aqabat Jabr camp, they demolished a house belonging to the citizen Tariq Jamil Nujoom. Under the pretext of not being licensed.
The occupation forces also stormed the village of Al-Duyouk Al-Tahta, and demolished two houses belonging to citizens from the occupied city of Jerusalem, and the foundations of a third house under construction, belonging to the citizen Muhammad Ahmed Samarat from Al-Duyouk, while colonists destroyed agricultural crops.
In the Umm al-Qaba plain in the northern Jordan Valley, they tore up more than 80 bags of hay and straw bales, and in the Arab al-Malihat Bedouin community, colonists seized dozens of sheep belonging to the citizen Abdul Latif Atallah Suleiman.
In Khirbet Al Farisiya, colonists seized a water tank used to water livestock and place
d it near the ‘Rotem’ settlement near the area.
Source: Maan News Agency