via Mondoweiss
by Qassam Muddi. May 6, 2026
Qassam Muaddi is the Palestine Staff Writer for Mondoweiss. He covers social, political, and cultural developments in Palestine, and has written for several outlets in English and French, including the Catholic Terre Sainte Magazine and other outlets. Follow him on Twitter/X at @QassaMMuaddi.
Khaled Miqarqir used to grow bananas and vegetables year-round on his land in al-Auja, a farming village in the Jordan Valley northeast of Jericho. A year ago, Israeli settlers diverted the spring on which his crops depended, and now he and his family are trying to adapt to the new situation. But with summer ahead, “staying here is becoming harder every day,” he told Mondoweiss. “Very soon, if this continues, we will barely be allowed to drink.”
Israeli settlers and the Israeli army have escalated their seizure of water sources and the demolition of water infrastructure across the West Bank since 2023, deepening the water shortages Palestinians already face under Israeli control. Out of over 1,000 attacks against Palestinians settlers carried out across the West Bank in 2025, over 350 of them have targeted water sources and infrastructure, averaging out to nearly one attack per day, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Among the most significant were the repeated raids on the Ein Samiya water source near the town of Kufr Malik, northeast of Ramallah, which supplies running water to some 100,000 Palestinians; attacks on the wells of Yatta, in the South Hebron Hills, which serve around 150,000 Palestinians; and the takeover of the Ain al-Auja source near Jericho, which serves around 20,000 Palestinians.
According to a report by Jerusalem’s Land Research Center, Israeli forces have destroyed 1,986 wells, springs, reservoirs, and water tanks over the past decade.
