[News] Israel accountable for 25 percent of water-related violence in 2023

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 Israel accountable for 25 percent of water-related violence in 2023: Report

The tracker recorded over 90 incidents of well, pump, and irrigation system
destruction or contamination last year

News Desk <https://thecradle.co/authors/news-desk-9>

AUG 23, 2024 -
https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-accountable-for-25-percent-of-water-related-violence-in-2023-report
(Photo Credit: Flash 90)

The Water Conflict Chronology <https://worldwater.org/conflict/list/>
tracker reported on 22 August that Israeli attacks on Palestinian water
supplies made up 25 percent of all water-related violence in 2023.

Over the year, settlers, frequently supported by or coordinating with the
Israeli army, consistently executed targeted attacks on integral water
sources throughout the occupied West Bank.

The tracker found over 90 incidents last year involving contaminating or
destroying wells, pumps, and irrigation systems, based on monitoring news,
UN reports, and eyewitness accounts.

Instances of water-related violence in Palestine last year included the
destruction of 800 meters of water pipelines in the West Bank town of
Al-Awja, disrupting water supply to agricultural lands; airstrikes on solar
panels powering the Gaza Central Wastewater Treatment Plant, which served
one million people across 11 communities; and the bombing of at least one
desalination plant owned by the Eta Water Company in Gaza.

As the Israeli military and Israeli settlers targeted water supplies in
Palestine, especially during the last three months of 2023, water conflicts
in West Asia came to represent 38 percent of all water-related violence
worldwide last year.

For the last 11 months, rights groups have cautioned that Israel's
near-total blockade on humanitarian aid and attacks on civilian
infrastructure have left Gaza's 2.3 million residents without sufficient
access to safe drinking water, leading to the spread of diseases and
worsening the starvation crisis in the region.

The vast majority of water-related violence in the West Bank was fueled by
Israel's illegal annexation of land for settlements, which the International
Court of Justice <https://thecradle.co/articles-id/26023> (ICJ) ruled last
month to be a violation of international law.

In June, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced plans to
accommodate an additional one million settlers in the occupied West Bank,
following months of advocating for settlement expansion.
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