Israel destroys pipelines providing water to village in Jordan Valley

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. 

Israel does not provide Palestinians with enough water, Bisharat said, and the Israeli government has aimed to expel Palestinians from their homes using such allegations against the community. 

A spokesperson for COGAT, the agency responsible for implementing Israeli policies in the occupied Palestinian territory, was not immediately available for comment. 

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.

Meanwhile, just half of Palestinian proposals for wells and improvement projects to the water network were approved by Israel between 1995 and 2008, compared to a 100 percent approval rate for Israeli projects, according to Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq.

As a result, demolitions of Palestinian infrastructure and residences occur frequently in areas fully controlled by the Israeli military, known as Area C, which makes up 88 percent of the Jordan Valley. 

Source: maannews.com