Israel destroys Palestinians’ water pipes as settlers attack flashpoint village

In new acts of provocation, Israeli bulldozers escorted by Tel Aviv regime forces have destroyed a water pipeline, while extremist settlers attack a flashpoint village in the occupied West Bank.

Mutaz Basharat, a senior official who monitors Israeli settlement activities, said that soldier equipped with heavy machinery destroyed the 4-km water line used for irrigation of crops planted by Palestinian farmers in the village of Atuf of Jordan Valley early Thursday.

The demolition would harm the agricultural crops, which is the village’s main source of income, he added.

Palestinians who live in the Jordan Valley, mainly nomadic Bedouins, rely heavily on agriculture and livestock as a main source of living.

The Israeli regime is already pressing ahead with its aggression against the Palestinian nation, especially as it continues to raze buildings and aggressively distributes house demolition notices.

Israel justifies the demolition of Palestinian homes by claiming that they lack building permits, despite the fact that Palestinians are not provided with such permits.

Moreover, Israel orders Palestinians to demolish their own homes or pay the demolition cost to the municipality. 

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says Israeli authorities either demolish or seize Palestinian property in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds, a trend which has led to the displacement of a large number of Palestinian inhabitants over the past few months.

Many structures have been targeted in Area C, which accounts for more than 60 percent of area in the West Bank, and forms a significant part of a future Palestine state under the so-called two-state solution.

In Jordan Valley, Israel goes on with demolition of Palestinian property

The UN has reported a surge in the demolition in the recent past.

Settlers attack Palestinian village

Separately, local media reports said  rampaging extremist Israeli settler attacked the village of Luban ash-Sharqiya near the West Bank city of Nablus.

Samer Eweis, mayor of the village, said scores of rampaging settlers protected by a military escort attacked the entrance of the village and harassed local Palestinian residents.

The soldiers along settlers also obstructed and denied access of hundreds of students to their schools in the village. They also attacked parents who gathered at the site to secure the way of their children.

Soldiers also assaulted journalists who were covering the attack. 

This was the second attack across the area in less than four days.

During an earlier attack on Wednesday, the occupying forces fired tear gas canisters and rubber-coated towards the residents, causing around 60 cases of suffocation.

Incidents of sabotage and settler violence by extremist Israelis against Palestinians and their property have become a daily occurrence throughout the occupied territories, particularly in the West Bank.

Palestine urges ICC to expedite probe into Israeli war crimes in occupied territories

Palestine calls on the ICC to expedite an investigation into the crimes of the Tel Aviv regime and extremist Jewish settlers in the occupied lands, and bring perpetrators to justice.

However, Israeli authorities rarely prosecute Israeli settlers and the vast majority of the files are closed due to deliberate police failure to investigate properly.

Settler violence includes property and mosque arson attacks, stone-throwing, uprooting of crops and olive trees, attacks on vulnerable homes, among others.
The United Nations has already warned of a surge in Israeli settler violence against Palestinians, mostly in the areas of al-Khalil, al-Quds, Nablus and Ramallah.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.

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