3,500 Palestinians without water as Israel destroys water pipelines

Israeli bulldozers destroyed all the water pipelines providing services to the village of Bardala yesterday morning in the northern occupied West Bank district of Tubas.

Mutaz Bisharat, a Palestinian official who monitors settlement activity in the Jordan Valley, told Ma’an that four Israeli bulldozers, escorted by Israeli military jeeps and officials from Israel’s Civil Administration, destroyed all the main lines providing Bardala with water, leaving some 3,500 residents of the village without access to any water.

Bisharat added that Israeli forces claimed that residents in the village were stealing the water through the lines in order to use the water for agriculture and farming. But Bisharat rejected the accusation.

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Israel does not provide Palestinians with enough water, Bisharat said, and the Israeli government aims to expel Palestinians from their homes.

Earlier this year, Israeli forces destroyed a water pipeline running between the Bedouin communities of Al-Hadidiya and Al-Ras Al-Ahmar in the northern Jordan Valley, east of the Tubas district.

Amnesty International estimates that up to 200,000 Palestinians in the West Bank do not have access to running water.