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<h1 class="title">Israeli forces demolish water cisterns in
Hebron-area village</h1>
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<div class="stamp">Sept. 27, 2016 - HEBRON<br>
<font size="-2"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=773311">http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=773311</a></font>
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Israeli forces demolished water wells in the southern occupied
West Bank district of Hebron on Tuesday morning, municipal
sources said.<br>
<br>
An official from the municipality of Sair told Ma’an that
Israeli troops demolished four wells in agricultural lands in
the Jurat al-Kheil area east of Sair used for sheep to drink and
to irrigate crops. The wells reportedly belonged to Ziyad
Mahmoud Shalalda, Ahmad Muhammad Shalalda, Ibrahim Muhammad
Shalalda, and Nabil Shihada Shalalda.<br>
<br>
The municipality official added that Israeli forces leveled
lands in the area as well. A spokesperson for COGAT, the Israeli
agency responsible for implementing Israeli policies in
Palestinian territory, told Ma’an that “enforcement measures
were carried out against four cisterns and an illegal structure
in the Sair region, which were built without the required
permits,” adding that Israeli authorities had previously
demolished similar structures in the area.<br>
<br>
In May, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah condemned <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771655"
target="_blank">Israel’s illegal practice of destroying
Palestinian water infrastructure as "atrocious."</a><br>
<br>
“Israel uses every means possible to chase Palestinians away
from their ancestral land,” Hamdallah said at the time. "Water
is life, and if you don't have water you cannot exist."<br>
<br>
While Palestinians are routinely subject to demolitions and land
seizures in the West Bank, they are also subject to
disproportionately low access to vital resources. Israeli
settlers in the occupied Palestinian territory consume
approximately six times the amount of water used by
Palestinians; this discrepancy is even greater when considering
water used for agricultural purposes.<br>
<br>
The Sair official said that Israeli forces <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772699"
target="_blank">had demolished eight homes</a> in the Jurat
al-Kheil area a month and a half earlier, leaving some 50
Palestinians homeless. Israel rarely grants Palestinians permits
to build in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, although
the estimated 550,000 Jewish Israeli settlers are more easily
given building permits and allowed to expand their homes and
properties.<br>
<br>
Nearly all Palestinian applications for building permits in Area
C are denied by the Israeli authorities, forcing communities to
build illegally.Demolitions in the occupied West Bank and East
Jerusalem have seen an unprecedented surge in recent months, as
Israeli authorities demolished 769 Palestinian structures so far
this year, in a large increase from 531 in all of 2015,
according to UN documentation. </div>
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