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<div class="gmail-inner-article-top"><h1 class="gmail-">Israel accountable for 25 percent of water-related violence in 2023: Report</h1><p class="gmail-">The tracker recorded over 90 incidents of well, pump, and irrigation system destruction or contamination last year</p><div class="gmail-another-name"><p><a href="https://thecradle.co/authors/news-desk-9" style="color:rgb(164,4,4)">News Desk</a></p></div><div class="gmail-another-name" style="margin-top:16px"><p><span>AUG 23, 2024 -<font size="1"> </font></span><font size="1"><a href="https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-accountable-for-25-percent-of-water-related-violence-in-2023-report">https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-accountable-for-25-percent-of-water-related-violence-in-2023-report</a></font></p></div></div><div class="gmail-inner-article-img"><img src="http://thecradle-main.oss-eu-central-1.aliyuncs.com/public/articles/c09b6536-6151-11ef-a80f-00163e02c055.jpeg" alt="" width="424" height="239" style="margin-right: 0px;"><span>(Photo Credit: Flash 90)</span></div><div class="gmail-inner-article-content"><div class="gmail-row"><div class="gmail-col-md-8 gmail-col-sm-7"><div class="gmail-article-content"><span><p>The <a href="https://worldwater.org/conflict/list/">Water Conflict Chronology</a>
tracker reported on 22 August that Israeli attacks on Palestinian water
supplies made up 25 percent of all water-related violence in 2023.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>The vast majority
of water-related violence in the West Bank was fueled by Israel's
illegal annexation of land for settlements, which the <a href="https://thecradle.co/articles-id/26023">International Court of Justice</a> (ICJ) ruled last month to be a violation of international law.</p><p>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.</p></span></div></div></div></div>
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