While record rainfall swept away tents in tightly packed displacement camps in Gaza, in the last few weeks West Bank settlers have accelerated their attacks on water installations serving Palestinian herding communities in the effort to drive them off the land.
According to OCHA:
“In Jericho governorate on 20 September, settlers temporarily severed water networks that supply water to the Bedouin communities of Al Hathroura and Sateh al Bahr and installed a pipe in Sateh al Bahr to connect a nearby settlement outpost to the water supply serving the community. This is the second time that settlers sever water networks this month in both communities. Damages were repaired by the residents after a few hours.
“In Hebron governorate on 14 September, during ongoing bulldozing works carried out by settlers near the Bedouin community of Khirbet Umm al Kheir, the community’s water and electricity networks were destroyed. As a result, 35 families comprising about 200 people were left without access to water and electricity for five days. In another herding community, Umm At Tiran near Khirbet Zanuta, on 22 September, a female Israeli settler cut water pipes and destroyed wires and part of the solar panel system.
“In Nablus governorate on 18 September, a group of Israeli settlers, believed to be from a nearby outpost, vandalized a water network and a vehicle in the village of Duma village, causing damage to 100 metres of plastic water pipes. Settlers also scattered sharp metal objects on the ground, which caused punctures in the tyres of a vehicle belonging to the water department in the village council.”
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