Israeli occupiers destroy Palestinian village’s only water line in West Bank

Israeli occupiers destroyed the only water supply line serving the Palestinian village of Umm Safa in the occupied West Bank on Monday, local sources told Anadolu. The sources said that occupiers bulldozed Palestinian land and destroyed the main water pipeline supplying the village, located northwest of Ramallah, while paving a new settlement road in the area. The attack left the village without running water. Umm Safa has witnessed escalating assaults by Israeli occupiers operating from surrounding illegal settlements and outposts, increasingly preventing Palestinians from accessing their farmland.

Settlement expansion and extremist funding

The occupied West Bank has seen a surge in attacks on Palestinian agricultural land, including arson, bulldozing, and restrictions on farmers’ access to property near illegal settlements. Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government plans to allocate 5.5 million shekels ($1.89 million) from the state budget to fund the extremist occupier group Hilltop Youth. The group, whose members mainly live in illegal settlement outposts, has carried out repeated attacks against Palestinians and is considered the ideological nucleus of the “Price Tag” movement.

Casualties and displacement

Since October 8, 2023, the Israeli army and occupiers have killed at least 1,169 Palestinians, wounded 12,666, arrested about 23,000, and displaced 33,000 in the West Bank, according to official Palestinian figures.