The Israeli occupation persists in dismantling and confiscating water pipelines meant for Palestinian farmers in northern Jordan Valley as an attempt to force their evacuation.
The Jordan Valley’s Palestinian natives are subjected to daily harassment from the Israeli soldiers and settlers in an effort to force them to leave the area which Israel intends to annex.
A few weeks ago the so-called Israeli Civil Administration personnel and soldiers came with a bulldozer and crane truck to the area of the Umm Qatan in the northern Jordan Valley.
The force dismantled and confiscated a pipeline that was meant to provide water for area farmers.
Speaking to the PIC reporter Mutaz Bisharat an official with the Tubas governorate said that Israel is seeking to displace the local residents by tightening the grip on their daily life.
Since 1967 Israel has applied strict water policies in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) that have prevented any Palestinian control over water resources.
The first days of the occupation witnessed the confiscation of numerous Palestinian wells in the Jordan Valley.
The Jordan Valley contains about 47% of the groundwater sources of the West Bank annually producing 170 million cubic meters of water.
Ghassan Daghlas who monitors Israeli settlement activities in the north of the OPT also told the PIC reporter that Israel’s confiscation of water pipelines only aims at displacing the local residents for settlement expansion.
He further pointed out that Israel controls more than 85% of Jordan Valley water saying that Israeli settlers in the area consume eight times more water on average than the territory’s Palestinian residents.
The Jordan Valley is of paramount importance to Israel which seeks to have a strong grip on the area.
