Dispatches from the West Bank via Jewish Currents...

For Palestinians living in the West Bank, settler violence has long been a relentless facet of everyday life. With the formation of Israel’s far-right coalition government in December 2022, settler assaults have only escalated, graduating from small-scale attacks on shepherds grazing their flock to mob violence on whole communities. In February, after a Palestinian gunman killed two Israelis near the West Bank town of Huwara, settlers rampaged through the Palestinian town, killing one resident and wounding 100, in addition to vandalizing homes and shops and setting hundreds of cars afire. At the time, Bezalel Smotrich, Israeli finance minister and head of civil administration in the West Bank, called for Huwara to be “wiped out.” Several months later, the pattern repeated after a Palestinian gunmen killed four Israelis near the settlement of Eli, triggering a Huwara-style riot where hundreds of settlers entered nearby Palestinian villages and attacked residents and property. Once again, the government spurred on the settlers, with Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir calling for a military operation in the West Bank that would “blow up buildings [and] assassinate terrorists—not one, or two, but dozens, hundreds, or if needed, thousands.” Israeli police and the army are often party to such settler violence, either through inaction or through direct participation.

Read the article here.

Water Fact--August 11, 2025

Water Fact - August 11, 2025

The spread of water-borne disease has escalated throughout the Gaza Strip during the 22-month-long genocide.   According to a recent  Oxfam report, over the last three months, some forms of  diarrhea have increased by more than 300 percent,  and cases of acute jaundice have risen by more than 200 percent.   With little access to water for bathing as waste piles up in streets and tented encampments, scabies and other skin conditions that are usually easily treatable are spreading rapidly through the population.  

Israel’s displacement orders from  late July demanding Palestinians relocate from the north and middle area of the Strip to only 13 percent  of the land in the south would deprive them of access to the limited supply of clean water produced by some partially functioning desalination plants, including a major one located in Deir-al Balah in the middle area of Gaza.  

On August 4, Al Jazeera reported that “more than 75 percent of wells are out of service, 85 percent of public works equipment has been destroyed, 100,000 metres (62 miles) of water mains have been damaged and 200,000 metres (124 miles) of sewage lines are unusable.  Pumping stations are out of action, and 250,000 tonnes of rubbish are clogging the streets.”

Palestinians desperate to stave off thirst are forced to consume brackish, salinated water from Gaza’s sole collapsing aquifer, which contains disease-spreading bacteria and other contaminants. The impending Israeli military invasion to take over Gaza City and the entire Gaza Strip is bound to make an already catastrophic situation still more cataclysmic.
 

UN agencies and NGOs warn that without immediate action...

UN agencies and NGOs warn that without immediate action most international NGO partners could be de-registered by [Israel] in coming weeks

Statement by the Humanitarian Country Team of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)*

East Jerusalem, 6 August 2025

United Nations agencies and NGOs call on Israeli authorities to rescind the requirement introduced on 9 March obliging international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to share sensitive personal information about their Palestinian employees or face termination of their humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Unless urgent action is taken, humanitarian organizations warn that most international NGO partners could be de-registered by 9 September or sooner – forcing them to withdraw all international staff and preventing them from providing critical, life-saving humanitarian assistance to Palestinians. This requirement is part of a set of new restrictive conditions for international NGOs which include potential consequences for public criticism of policies and practices of the Government of Israel.

Already, NGOs that are not registered under the new system are prohibited from sending any supplies to Gaza. In July this year, Israeli authorities rejected repeated requests by 29 NGOs to ship humanitarian aid to Gaza citing the organizations as “not authorized. This policy has already prevented the delivery of life-saving aid including medicine, food, and hygiene items. This most profoundly affects women, children, older people, and persons with disabilities, further aggravating the risk of being subjected to abuse and exploitation.

International NGOs also provide critical support to Palestinian NGOs who rely on international partners for supplies, funding, and technical support. Without this cooperation, their operations will be severed, cutting off even more communities from food, medical care, shelter and critical protection services.

Impeding NGOs from participating in the collective humanitarian response violates Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law and comes at a time when we are receiving daily reports of death by starvation as Gaza faces famine conditions.

* The Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) is a strategic decision-making forum led by the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It brings together heads of UN entities and over 200 NGOs – both international and local – all working on humanitarian affairs in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip under internationally agreed humanitarian principles.