17 nov 2017
The Israeli government has reportedly informed the Palestinian residents of al-Walaja village, located in the southern occupied West Bank district of Bethlehem, just on the border of Israel’s Jerusalem municipality, that they are to be cut off from a large portion of their lands due to the relocation of a checkpoint in the area.
Israeli news daily Haaretz reported that an Israeli Jerusalem district planning committee announced that the Ein Yael checkpoint between Jerusalem and the illegal Har Gilo settlement — which was built on al-Walaja’s lands — would move deeper into Palestinian area, where it will become part of the “Jerusalem metropolitan park.”
Inside the land that is to be annexed, is the Ain al-Haniya spring, the second-largest spring in the occupied West Bank according to Haaretz.
The spring is also one of the main water sources for the residents’ livestock to bathe and drink from, and also serves as a recreational spring for the people of the surrounding areas, who flock to the spring to picnic and swim.
According to Haaretz, the Israel Antiquities Authority and Jerusalem Development Authority have already started renovation work at the spring and the surrounding areas, and plan on surrounding the spring with a fence, building a visitors center and a restaurant and turning it into one of the entrances to Jerusalem’s metropolitan park — a park where the residents of al-Walaja and Bethlehem would not be able to access without special permits.
Haaretz further reported, according to Ma’an, that the resident of al-Walaja received letters telling them that the checkpoint will be moved closer to their village, some two and a half kilometers deeper into Palestinian territory from where it is currently located.
The villagers were reportedly given 15 days to appeal the decision.
Once the checkpoint is relocated, Palestinians without Jerusalem resident papers or Israeli-issued visitor permits will not be allowed to pass through it and will be prevented from accessing the spring, fields, and farming terraces to which they have tended to for generations.
“Ironically, the well-groomed, carefully tended terraces that al-Walaja’s residents have nurtured over the years were one of the reasons given by the Israeli authorities for setting up a park in the area,” Haaretz said.
Haaretz quoted Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at Israeli NGO Ir Amim as saying that “Israelis will stroll among the beautiful terraces, tended to and fostered by al-Walaja residents, with the land owners locked behind a barbed wire fence a few dozen meters away, unable to come to the lands that were robbed from them.”
“That’s the rightist government’s vision: instead of peace and justice, fences and increasingly brutal oppression,” he said.
The village of al-Walaja has long been the target of Israeli land confiscations and mass Israeli demolitions for the purpose of expanding Israel’s illegal settlements and advancing the construction of Israel’s separation wall — deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004.
At the end of April, Israel resumed construction of the separation wall in the village after a three-year hiatus.
Residents of al-Walaja lost over three-quarters of their lands since the state of Israel was established in 1948, when most of the village’s residents became refugees.
During Israel’s military takeover of East Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1967, 50 percent of al-Walaja’s lands were annexed to the Jerusalem municipality.
Meanwhile, Israel’s separation wall encircles al-Walaja, and swathes of land have been re-appropriated by the Israeli government for the construction and expansion of the illegal Israeli settlements of Gilo, Har Gilo, and Givat Yael.
Israeli news daily Haaretz reported that an Israeli Jerusalem district planning committee announced that the Ein Yael checkpoint between Jerusalem and the illegal Har Gilo settlement — which was built on al-Walaja’s lands — would move deeper into Palestinian area, where it will become part of the “Jerusalem metropolitan park.”
Inside the land that is to be annexed, is the Ain al-Haniya spring, the second-largest spring in the occupied West Bank according to Haaretz.
The spring is also one of the main water sources for the residents’ livestock to bathe and drink from, and also serves as a recreational spring for the people of the surrounding areas, who flock to the spring to picnic and swim.
According to Haaretz, the Israel Antiquities Authority and Jerusalem Development Authority have already started renovation work at the spring and the surrounding areas, and plan on surrounding the spring with a fence, building a visitors center and a restaurant and turning it into one of the entrances to Jerusalem’s metropolitan park — a park where the residents of al-Walaja and Bethlehem would not be able to access without special permits.
Haaretz further reported, according to Ma’an, that the resident of al-Walaja received letters telling them that the checkpoint will be moved closer to their village, some two and a half kilometers deeper into Palestinian territory from where it is currently located.
The villagers were reportedly given 15 days to appeal the decision.
Once the checkpoint is relocated, Palestinians without Jerusalem resident papers or Israeli-issued visitor permits will not be allowed to pass through it and will be prevented from accessing the spring, fields, and farming terraces to which they have tended to for generations.
“Ironically, the well-groomed, carefully tended terraces that al-Walaja’s residents have nurtured over the years were one of the reasons given by the Israeli authorities for setting up a park in the area,” Haaretz said.
Haaretz quoted Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at Israeli NGO Ir Amim as saying that “Israelis will stroll among the beautiful terraces, tended to and fostered by al-Walaja residents, with the land owners locked behind a barbed wire fence a few dozen meters away, unable to come to the lands that were robbed from them.”
“That’s the rightist government’s vision: instead of peace and justice, fences and increasingly brutal oppression,” he said.
The village of al-Walaja has long been the target of Israeli land confiscations and mass Israeli demolitions for the purpose of expanding Israel’s illegal settlements and advancing the construction of Israel’s separation wall — deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004.
At the end of April, Israel resumed construction of the separation wall in the village after a three-year hiatus.
Residents of al-Walaja lost over three-quarters of their lands since the state of Israel was established in 1948, when most of the village’s residents became refugees.
During Israel’s military takeover of East Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1967, 50 percent of al-Walaja’s lands were annexed to the Jerusalem municipality.
Meanwhile, Israel’s separation wall encircles al-Walaja, and swathes of land have been re-appropriated by the Israeli government for the construction and expansion of the illegal Israeli settlements of Gilo, Har Gilo, and Givat Yael.
14 nov 2017
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Monday set up a new iron gate in Ras al-Ahmar area on al-Beqi'ah plains, south of Tubas in the northern West Bank.
Local activist Moataz Bisharat said that the gate was aimed to separate the Palestinian-owned lands on al-Beqi’ah plains and the northern Jordan Valley from each other.
Bisharat noted that the gate would make it difficult for landowners to move between the two areas.
Earlier on the same day, an Israeli bulldozer razed an agricultural road used by Palestinian farmers in the same area, which caused damage to a water pipeline.
Local activist Moataz Bisharat said that the gate was aimed to separate the Palestinian-owned lands on al-Beqi’ah plains and the northern Jordan Valley from each other.
Bisharat noted that the gate would make it difficult for landowners to move between the two areas.
Earlier on the same day, an Israeli bulldozer razed an agricultural road used by Palestinian farmers in the same area, which caused damage to a water pipeline.
10 nov 2017
The Israeli occupation forces on Friday morning ordered Palestinian families to evacuate their facilities in the northern Jordan Valley, putting into effect a recently-issued land grab order.
Local sources told the Palestinian Information Center that Israeli soldiers ordered Palestinian communities setting up roots in Ein al-Hilweh and Umm al-Jamal, in the Jordan Valley, to leave the area in no more than eight days following an order to seize a set of land tracts.
Israel’s military chief of staff gave instructions for the confiscation of Palestinian land lots in Ein al-Hilweh and Umm al-Jamal and for the evacuation of all residential communities by next week.
In case the inhabitants object the order, they will have all of their properties in the area seized by the announced deadline.
Ein al-Hilweh community is home to 10 Palestinian families and 25 civilian facilities. Umm Jamal community is home to 15 Palestinian families and 40 facilities.
Located some 18 kilometers away from eastern Tubas, Ein al-Hilweh, in al-Malih Valley, is rich with natural resources, most notably water springs and fertile soil. However, as time has passed by, the springs have gone dried out as a result of Israel’s unabated settlement activity in the area.
Local sources told the Palestinian Information Center that Israeli soldiers ordered Palestinian communities setting up roots in Ein al-Hilweh and Umm al-Jamal, in the Jordan Valley, to leave the area in no more than eight days following an order to seize a set of land tracts.
Israel’s military chief of staff gave instructions for the confiscation of Palestinian land lots in Ein al-Hilweh and Umm al-Jamal and for the evacuation of all residential communities by next week.
In case the inhabitants object the order, they will have all of their properties in the area seized by the announced deadline.
Ein al-Hilweh community is home to 10 Palestinian families and 25 civilian facilities. Umm Jamal community is home to 15 Palestinian families and 40 facilities.
Located some 18 kilometers away from eastern Tubas, Ein al-Hilweh, in al-Malih Valley, is rich with natural resources, most notably water springs and fertile soil. However, as time has passed by, the springs have gone dried out as a result of Israel’s unabated settlement activity in the area.
6 nov 2017
Israeli settlers ruined on Monday morning a water pipe used by Palestinian farmers in the village of Sakout, in the northern Jordan Valley, according to a local official.
In a press statement, the official of settlement in the area Mutaz Besharat said a group of settlers escorted by Israeli forces destroyed the water pipe that was recently installed by Palestinian farmers in the area to irrigate their crops.
The village is located in Area C of the West Bank, which is under full Israeli military and administrative control. Palestinian residents in that area are often harassed and attacked by Israeli settlers, who repeatedly carry out their violations in the presence of Israeli military forces.
Israeli practices in the Jordan Valley are aimed at pushing the Palestinians out of the Jordan Valley district using all means in order to replace them with Jewish settlers.
In a press statement, the official of settlement in the area Mutaz Besharat said a group of settlers escorted by Israeli forces destroyed the water pipe that was recently installed by Palestinian farmers in the area to irrigate their crops.
The village is located in Area C of the West Bank, which is under full Israeli military and administrative control. Palestinian residents in that area are often harassed and attacked by Israeli settlers, who repeatedly carry out their violations in the presence of Israeli military forces.
Israeli practices in the Jordan Valley are aimed at pushing the Palestinians out of the Jordan Valley district using all means in order to replace them with Jewish settlers.
25 oct 2017
The Israeli water company Gihon cut off water to a number of Palestinian homes in the Silwan neighborhood in east Jerusalem, and on the same day issued demolition notices to several homes in the neighborhood.
The new notices come just two days after another wave of demolition notices were issued to Palestinian homeowners in Silwan.
Silwan has long been a target of Israeli authorities, who identified the neighborhood in the E1 Jerusalem plan as a target of expansion, where the Israeli government plans to expel the Palestinian homeowners and build Jewish-only settlements in their places.
202 Palestinians have been rendered homeless in East Jerusalem this year by Israeli authorities forcibly removing them from their homes and then demolishing those houses.
Palestinian homeowners are denied permits for construction close to 100% of the time, since Israel occupied Jerusalem in 1967.
The new notices come just two days after another wave of demolition notices were issued to Palestinian homeowners in Silwan.
Silwan has long been a target of Israeli authorities, who identified the neighborhood in the E1 Jerusalem plan as a target of expansion, where the Israeli government plans to expel the Palestinian homeowners and build Jewish-only settlements in their places.
202 Palestinians have been rendered homeless in East Jerusalem this year by Israeli authorities forcibly removing them from their homes and then demolishing those houses.
Palestinian homeowners are denied permits for construction close to 100% of the time, since Israel occupied Jerusalem in 1967.
24 oct 2017
Palestinian minister of economy Abeer Odeh on Monday inaugurated three projects to rehabilitate the infrastructure of the Gaza industrial city with funding from the European Union (EU).
The rehabilitation projects will improve infrastructure in the industrial city pertaining to sanitation, electricity, and water treatment and desalination.
During her visit to the industrial city, Odeh met with officials from the UN Development Program (UNDP), the Palestinian Industrial Estates and Free Zones Authority, and the Palestinian Investment Promotion Agency.
She stated that four contractors would embark over two months on developing and rehabilitating the infrastructure of the city
The minister affirmed that “the development and rehabilitation of the Gaza industrial city is a top priority for the government, especially since it has a strategic role in reviving the national economy and alleviating unemployment and poverty.”
The Gaza industrial city is located over an area of 500 dunums of land and has 38 industrial and logistic establishments.
The rehabilitation projects will improve infrastructure in the industrial city pertaining to sanitation, electricity, and water treatment and desalination.
During her visit to the industrial city, Odeh met with officials from the UN Development Program (UNDP), the Palestinian Industrial Estates and Free Zones Authority, and the Palestinian Investment Promotion Agency.
She stated that four contractors would embark over two months on developing and rehabilitating the infrastructure of the city
The minister affirmed that “the development and rehabilitation of the Gaza industrial city is a top priority for the government, especially since it has a strategic role in reviving the national economy and alleviating unemployment and poverty.”
The Gaza industrial city is located over an area of 500 dunums of land and has 38 industrial and logistic establishments.
23 oct 2017
by Mersiha Gadzo, Al Jazeera/Days of Palestine
World Health Organisation says that an illegal Israeli settler in West Bank consumes three times more water than a legal Palestinian resident.
Jordan Valley, Occupied West Bank – Water is not scarce in the Jordan Valley, known as the traditional “breadbasket of Palestine” – yet Palestinian farmers struggle to survive, with little water to nourish their crops. They say the amount of water that Israeli authorities allocate to them has been decreasing daily since the Second Intifada.
Meanwhile, neighbouring settlements consume copious amounts of water. They grow produce, such as bananas, requiring large amounts of water, which is mostly pumped from wells in the occupied West Bank, and they export a rich variety of fruits, vegetables, flowers and spices to Europe and the United States.
In the village of Ein al-Beida, barbed wire divides a field in two.
On one side are rows of orange trees covered in lush green leaves, grown by Israeli settlers from a nearby illegal settlement; on the other is barren land allocated for Palestinians, where nothing grows except stiff stalks of yellow grass, long dried out due to the lack of water.
Farmers in Ein al-Beida, one of the few villages in the Jordan Valley that is connected to the water grid, last month staged a peaceful protest after Israeli authorities cut their water for more than a week.
Israeli authorities eventually turned their water back on, but locals say the amount is now less than half of the 240 cubic metres an hour that they received before the protest.
“They gave us the excuse that there’s not enough water underground,” farmer Mahdi Foqaha told Al Jazeera. “In reality, Israel doesn’t want us to live here any more … We just want the Israelis to let us extract our own water.”
Many Palestinians who depend on agriculture for a living try to install water pipes and connect to the water network on their own. Doing so without an Israeli permit, however, is deemed “illegal” and puts them at risk of having these makeshift connections demolished.
Only 1.5 percent of Palestinian building permit applications in Israeli-administered Area C of the occupied West Bank were approved between 2010 and 2014. Consequently, Palestinians have no choice but to build without a permit, even if it is a simple rainwater tank on private property.
“In [the neighbouring village] Bardala, Israelis decreased the water to 170 cubic metres for the whole village; people were forced to connect to the water ‘illegally,'” Foqaha said. “We want to live. What else can we do?”
However, the Israelis discovered the illegal connection “and punished the whole area by decreasing and cutting our water”, Foqaha added.
The Israeli government did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment on the matter.
Choking water supply
Following the 1967 war and Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, one of Israel’s first acts was to declare all water resources to be under Israeli military control. In order for Palestinians to build wells, repair pipes or develop irrigation networks, they had to obtain Israeli-issued permits, which are scarcely granted.
As a result, Palestinians often have their water tanks confiscated and pipes cut by Israeli authorities.
Palestinian farmers in the Jordan Valley recall a time before 1967, when their families freely used the water from springs that ran through their villages and watered their crops with canals. Their fathers grew citrus fruit and bananas; water was plentiful.
Today, they depend on seasonal agriculture to grow rain-fed crops that are on average 15 times less profitable than irrigated crops. They rely on growing produce that can survive for longer periods without water, such as dates, eggplants and zucchini. Palestinian farmers say they now use less than half of their original farming land.
After the 1967 war, the Israeli government confiscated land where the main spring flowed in Bardala and diverted the water to nearby agricultural settlements. Mekorot, Israel’s national water company, dug deep into the mountain aquifer, and by the end of the 1970s, Israel had extracted so much water that the springs in Bardala and Ein al-Beida had dried up.
Since groundwater sources have been depleted by Israeli-owned wells, Palestinians have resorted to buying their own water back from Mekorot at a high cost.
“The Israelis dug underground, conducted experiments and found out that this whole area is full of water,” Foqaha said.
“We used to have five, six central wells, but the Israelis took these wells from us and drained the water … All of us farmers [in Ein al-Beida] consume the same amount of water as one settler in [the illegal settlement] Mehola.”
Discriminatory policies
Water may be scarce for Palestinians, but it is not for Israeli settlers. The difference in consumption is stark: According to EWASH, a coalition of 30 NGOs, settlers in the Jordan Valley consume 81 times more water per capita than Palestinians in the West Bank.
Israel’s policies regarding water distribution amount to “water apartheid”, according to the human rights organisation al-Haq.
“Contrary to popular belief, water is not, and has not been, scarce in the region,” al-Haq noted in a 2013 report titled Water For One People Only.
“The level of unrestricted access to water enjoyed by those residing in Israel and Israeli settlers demonstrates that resources are plentiful, and that the lack of sufficient water for Palestinians is a direct result of Israel’s discriminatory policies in water management.
“Mekorot routinely reduces Palestinian supply – sometimes by as much as 50 percent – during the summer months in order to meet consumption needs in the settlements,” the report added.
The water cuts are not limited to areas under Israeli control. According to residents in Nablus in Area A, which is under Palestinian Authority (PA) control, water shortages reached a new peak this past summer, with water cuts lasting for as long as two weeks.
‘End oppression’
Farmer Ibrahim Kassab from the village of Jiftlik told Al Jazeera that half of his profits were spent on buying water for his crops. About 90 percent of his water supply is bought from Mekorot, and only 10 percent comes from the spring.
“Everyone here is thinking the same thing – to quit farming,” Kassab said, noting that half of the farmers in the village have already abandoned their farms and picked up jobs as labourers elsewhere.
More than 10 percent of the Palestinian GDP depends on agriculture, yet only 10 percent of the land is irrigated. In contrast, agriculture in Israel accounts for three percent of its GDP, but more than 50 percent of the land is irrigated.
“Anything that’s green is Israeli; anything that’s dry and yellow is Palestinian,” Ein al-Beida farmer Hussein Foqaha told Al Jazeera.
Farmers have nowhere to turn for help. Unable to extract their own water, their peaceful protest achieved little.
The head of their local council has reached out to the mayor of the nearest town, Tubas, to request water from the PA, but nothing has been achieved so far.
“At least we have water to drink now,” Muntasir Foqaha, another villager from Ein al-Beida, said wryly, commenting on the protest last month.
“We just want the oppression from Israelis to stop.”
World Health Organisation says that an illegal Israeli settler in West Bank consumes three times more water than a legal Palestinian resident.
Jordan Valley, Occupied West Bank – Water is not scarce in the Jordan Valley, known as the traditional “breadbasket of Palestine” – yet Palestinian farmers struggle to survive, with little water to nourish their crops. They say the amount of water that Israeli authorities allocate to them has been decreasing daily since the Second Intifada.
Meanwhile, neighbouring settlements consume copious amounts of water. They grow produce, such as bananas, requiring large amounts of water, which is mostly pumped from wells in the occupied West Bank, and they export a rich variety of fruits, vegetables, flowers and spices to Europe and the United States.
In the village of Ein al-Beida, barbed wire divides a field in two.
On one side are rows of orange trees covered in lush green leaves, grown by Israeli settlers from a nearby illegal settlement; on the other is barren land allocated for Palestinians, where nothing grows except stiff stalks of yellow grass, long dried out due to the lack of water.
Farmers in Ein al-Beida, one of the few villages in the Jordan Valley that is connected to the water grid, last month staged a peaceful protest after Israeli authorities cut their water for more than a week.
Israeli authorities eventually turned their water back on, but locals say the amount is now less than half of the 240 cubic metres an hour that they received before the protest.
“They gave us the excuse that there’s not enough water underground,” farmer Mahdi Foqaha told Al Jazeera. “In reality, Israel doesn’t want us to live here any more … We just want the Israelis to let us extract our own water.”
Many Palestinians who depend on agriculture for a living try to install water pipes and connect to the water network on their own. Doing so without an Israeli permit, however, is deemed “illegal” and puts them at risk of having these makeshift connections demolished.
Only 1.5 percent of Palestinian building permit applications in Israeli-administered Area C of the occupied West Bank were approved between 2010 and 2014. Consequently, Palestinians have no choice but to build without a permit, even if it is a simple rainwater tank on private property.
“In [the neighbouring village] Bardala, Israelis decreased the water to 170 cubic metres for the whole village; people were forced to connect to the water ‘illegally,'” Foqaha said. “We want to live. What else can we do?”
However, the Israelis discovered the illegal connection “and punished the whole area by decreasing and cutting our water”, Foqaha added.
The Israeli government did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment on the matter.
Choking water supply
Following the 1967 war and Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, one of Israel’s first acts was to declare all water resources to be under Israeli military control. In order for Palestinians to build wells, repair pipes or develop irrigation networks, they had to obtain Israeli-issued permits, which are scarcely granted.
As a result, Palestinians often have their water tanks confiscated and pipes cut by Israeli authorities.
Palestinian farmers in the Jordan Valley recall a time before 1967, when their families freely used the water from springs that ran through their villages and watered their crops with canals. Their fathers grew citrus fruit and bananas; water was plentiful.
Today, they depend on seasonal agriculture to grow rain-fed crops that are on average 15 times less profitable than irrigated crops. They rely on growing produce that can survive for longer periods without water, such as dates, eggplants and zucchini. Palestinian farmers say they now use less than half of their original farming land.
After the 1967 war, the Israeli government confiscated land where the main spring flowed in Bardala and diverted the water to nearby agricultural settlements. Mekorot, Israel’s national water company, dug deep into the mountain aquifer, and by the end of the 1970s, Israel had extracted so much water that the springs in Bardala and Ein al-Beida had dried up.
Since groundwater sources have been depleted by Israeli-owned wells, Palestinians have resorted to buying their own water back from Mekorot at a high cost.
“The Israelis dug underground, conducted experiments and found out that this whole area is full of water,” Foqaha said.
“We used to have five, six central wells, but the Israelis took these wells from us and drained the water … All of us farmers [in Ein al-Beida] consume the same amount of water as one settler in [the illegal settlement] Mehola.”
Discriminatory policies
Water may be scarce for Palestinians, but it is not for Israeli settlers. The difference in consumption is stark: According to EWASH, a coalition of 30 NGOs, settlers in the Jordan Valley consume 81 times more water per capita than Palestinians in the West Bank.
Israel’s policies regarding water distribution amount to “water apartheid”, according to the human rights organisation al-Haq.
“Contrary to popular belief, water is not, and has not been, scarce in the region,” al-Haq noted in a 2013 report titled Water For One People Only.
“The level of unrestricted access to water enjoyed by those residing in Israel and Israeli settlers demonstrates that resources are plentiful, and that the lack of sufficient water for Palestinians is a direct result of Israel’s discriminatory policies in water management.
“Mekorot routinely reduces Palestinian supply – sometimes by as much as 50 percent – during the summer months in order to meet consumption needs in the settlements,” the report added.
The water cuts are not limited to areas under Israeli control. According to residents in Nablus in Area A, which is under Palestinian Authority (PA) control, water shortages reached a new peak this past summer, with water cuts lasting for as long as two weeks.
‘End oppression’
Farmer Ibrahim Kassab from the village of Jiftlik told Al Jazeera that half of his profits were spent on buying water for his crops. About 90 percent of his water supply is bought from Mekorot, and only 10 percent comes from the spring.
“Everyone here is thinking the same thing – to quit farming,” Kassab said, noting that half of the farmers in the village have already abandoned their farms and picked up jobs as labourers elsewhere.
More than 10 percent of the Palestinian GDP depends on agriculture, yet only 10 percent of the land is irrigated. In contrast, agriculture in Israel accounts for three percent of its GDP, but more than 50 percent of the land is irrigated.
“Anything that’s green is Israeli; anything that’s dry and yellow is Palestinian,” Ein al-Beida farmer Hussein Foqaha told Al Jazeera.
Farmers have nowhere to turn for help. Unable to extract their own water, their peaceful protest achieved little.
The head of their local council has reached out to the mayor of the nearest town, Tubas, to request water from the PA, but nothing has been achieved so far.
“At least we have water to drink now,” Muntasir Foqaha, another villager from Ein al-Beida, said wryly, commenting on the protest last month.
“We just want the oppression from Israelis to stop.”
3 oct 2017
Israeli soldiers invaded, Tuesday, the al-Walaja village, west of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, photographed homes and a building, a graveyard and a water spring.
Ibrahim Awadallah, an activist from al-Walaja, said dozens of soldiers, accompanied by employees of the Civil Administration Office of the Israeli military, invaded the town, especially Ein Jweiza and al-Hadafa area, and the local graveyard.
He added that the soldiers photographed three homes, owned by Mahmoud Mohammad Awadallah, Emad Faraj and Ibrahim Nairoukh, in addition to a structure owned by Hamed Shweiki.
Awadallah also stated that the soldiers photographed the town’s graveyard, and a local spring.
Al-Walaja has been subject to frequent invasions, and witnessed demolition of homes and walls, in addition to the dozens of demolition orders the military issued and handed to many families under the pretext of being built without permits.
Ibrahim Awadallah, an activist from al-Walaja, said dozens of soldiers, accompanied by employees of the Civil Administration Office of the Israeli military, invaded the town, especially Ein Jweiza and al-Hadafa area, and the local graveyard.
He added that the soldiers photographed three homes, owned by Mahmoud Mohammad Awadallah, Emad Faraj and Ibrahim Nairoukh, in addition to a structure owned by Hamed Shweiki.
Awadallah also stated that the soldiers photographed the town’s graveyard, and a local spring.
Al-Walaja has been subject to frequent invasions, and witnessed demolition of homes and walls, in addition to the dozens of demolition orders the military issued and handed to many families under the pretext of being built without permits.
30 sept 2017
Representatives of water institutions operating in the Gaza Strip, international figures and Palestinian activists held a press conference in Gaza city on Saturday about the catastrophic situation of water in the Gaza Strip and asked the international community to resolve the crisis.
The Director of UNRWA Operations in Gaza, Bo Schack said, “I hope that we all work together in order to find a solution to the crisis”.
“In light of the Israeli siege and the current crises, we in UNRWA have dealt with big issues that resulted from power shortage which affected all aspects of life including water,” he added.
The UN official opined that finding solutions to the water problem starts from resolving the energy issue.
He pointed out that UNRWA, as part of its works in refugee camps, runs water wells and equip its schools with water filters.
“We try to work with other organizations on coming up with solutions to many issues especially the water crisis”, Bo Schack said.
Maher Salem, Head of Gaza Municipality Water Department, said that Gaza currently has 80 wells with only 67 working.
Salem added, “Unfortunately, there is no well of them suitable for human use, except for house usage only."
Gaza city alone consumes over 30 million cubic meters of water annually while the annual return to the groundwater tank is less than 30% of that quantity, he highlighted.
Gaza municipality set a number of plans and projects to solve the problems of the water situation; most prominently the duplication of water quantities imported from Israel. Gaza Strip imports 30 million cubic meters of water annually from Israel.
Mazen al-Banna, Deputy Head of Water Authority in the Gaza Strip, warned during the press conference of the high water pollution rate in Gaza Strip.
Al-Banna elaborated by saying: “We have a large deficit, which has negative repercussions, including sea water intrusion," noting that the wells near the sea are salty to 1000 mg of chloride and that the maximum water salinity should be 250 mg per liter, according to the World Health Organization.
Al-Banna said that the groundwater reservoir suffers because of its proximity to the surface of the earth and the presence of high permeable sandy soil in addition to the leakage of sewage water to it.
Director-general of the Environment Protection Department in Gaza, Bahaa al-Din al-Agha, said that the percentage of groundwater pollution amounted to 98%, indicating that it is unable to meet world health standards of drinking water.
Al-Agha pointed out that the percentage of the energy shortage reached 70%, which led to shortage in water quantities going to residents’ homes.
A media campaign was launched, by Press House and other organizations concerned with water, during the conference in Gaza city on Saturday about the catastrophic situation of water in the Gaza Strip.
Bilal Jadallah, director of Press House, said that the campaign, which was launched in Arabic and English, will continue for a few days.
According to the latest statistical studies by the Water Authority, the water shortage rate in Gaza Strip reached 110 million cubic meters annually, while the need of the population is 200 million cubic meters per year.
Last July, a UN report stated that ground water in Gaza, the only source of drinking water, would be unusable by 2020 unless urgent moves are taken in order to slove the problem.
The Director of UNRWA Operations in Gaza, Bo Schack said, “I hope that we all work together in order to find a solution to the crisis”.
“In light of the Israeli siege and the current crises, we in UNRWA have dealt with big issues that resulted from power shortage which affected all aspects of life including water,” he added.
The UN official opined that finding solutions to the water problem starts from resolving the energy issue.
He pointed out that UNRWA, as part of its works in refugee camps, runs water wells and equip its schools with water filters.
“We try to work with other organizations on coming up with solutions to many issues especially the water crisis”, Bo Schack said.
Maher Salem, Head of Gaza Municipality Water Department, said that Gaza currently has 80 wells with only 67 working.
Salem added, “Unfortunately, there is no well of them suitable for human use, except for house usage only."
Gaza city alone consumes over 30 million cubic meters of water annually while the annual return to the groundwater tank is less than 30% of that quantity, he highlighted.
Gaza municipality set a number of plans and projects to solve the problems of the water situation; most prominently the duplication of water quantities imported from Israel. Gaza Strip imports 30 million cubic meters of water annually from Israel.
Mazen al-Banna, Deputy Head of Water Authority in the Gaza Strip, warned during the press conference of the high water pollution rate in Gaza Strip.
Al-Banna elaborated by saying: “We have a large deficit, which has negative repercussions, including sea water intrusion," noting that the wells near the sea are salty to 1000 mg of chloride and that the maximum water salinity should be 250 mg per liter, according to the World Health Organization.
Al-Banna said that the groundwater reservoir suffers because of its proximity to the surface of the earth and the presence of high permeable sandy soil in addition to the leakage of sewage water to it.
Director-general of the Environment Protection Department in Gaza, Bahaa al-Din al-Agha, said that the percentage of groundwater pollution amounted to 98%, indicating that it is unable to meet world health standards of drinking water.
Al-Agha pointed out that the percentage of the energy shortage reached 70%, which led to shortage in water quantities going to residents’ homes.
A media campaign was launched, by Press House and other organizations concerned with water, during the conference in Gaza city on Saturday about the catastrophic situation of water in the Gaza Strip.
Bilal Jadallah, director of Press House, said that the campaign, which was launched in Arabic and English, will continue for a few days.
According to the latest statistical studies by the Water Authority, the water shortage rate in Gaza Strip reached 110 million cubic meters annually, while the need of the population is 200 million cubic meters per year.
Last July, a UN report stated that ground water in Gaza, the only source of drinking water, would be unusable by 2020 unless urgent moves are taken in order to slove the problem.