News / Palestine

Israel admits cutting water to West Bank

Wednesday, 22 June 2016 11:50 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 22 June 2016 11:57 AM ]

A Palestinian beekeeper drinks water from a spring (file photo)

Israel says the Palestinian Authority's lack of cooperation has prompted the regime to cut water supplies to major areas in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinians facing water cuts include more than 40,000 — among them 16,000 refugees — in the city of Jenin where water supplies have been cut in half, British daily The Independent has reported.

The other affected places have been listed as several villages in the Nablus area, and the city of Salfit and its surrounding villages.

The daily Ha’aretz quoted Israeli authorities as saying that they had cut the supplies because the Palestinian Authority was refusing to approve additional water infrastructure in the West Bank.

The Israeli decision has left tens of thousands of Palestinians without safe drinking water amid scorching heat and the fasting month of Ramadan.

A spokesperson for the Israeli regime had earlier told the The Independent that there was “no truth” to reports of water shortage in the West Bank.

London-based rights body Amnesty International has described the reports of water supply suspension as “alarming.”

“Israel already allows Palestinians access to only a fraction of the shared water resources in the occupied West Bank," Amnesty researcher Saleh Hijazi said last week.

According to the rights group, almost 200,000 Palestinians in the West Bank do not have access to running water, and require permission before collecting it themselves.

Israel occupied the West Bank, East al-Quds (Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip in 1967. Ever since, Tel Aviv has been enforcing restrictions on the amount of water supplied to the West Bank and Gaza.

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