• Spring feeding Palestinian farms seized; UN records 160 attacks on water sites this year
• France condemns West Bank village siege, urges arrests
• Israel calls for police to replace military in handling settlers
FASAYIL: On a searing summer day, Israeli settlers splashed in a West Bank pool created by syphoning off water that had irrigated Palestinian crops, one of many seizures of water resources across the occupied territory.
The spring served as a lifeline for the nearby village of Fasayil in the fertile Jordan Valley, where Palestinians have relied on it for generations for food, employment and to supplement irregular Israeli supplies to their domestic taps.
“Our water supply remains cut off to this day, depriving us of the water we depend on for our homes, our livelihoods, and our agricultural land,” said Saad Nemer, who farms the land.
Israeli settlers seized his irrigation pipeline in June, channelling the water to an ancient pool in an archaeological site. Soon after, settlers advertised it as an Israeli tourist attraction, and Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich pledged financial support.
The seizure of the spring at Fasayil is part of a pattern that Palestinians say is designed to make their lives in the West Bank untenable. United Nations data shows Israeli settlers have attacked at least 160 water and sanitation sites across the Palestinian territory this year.
Yishai Shreiber, 21, an Israeli settler said the West Bank belonged to the Jewish people, and that if Palestinians don’t want to accept Jewish authority, they should leave.
France condemns rogue settlers
The water seizures coincide with other settler blockades. On Friday, France called on Israel to arrest and prosecute rogue settlers blockading Palestinian homes in the West Bank village of Qusra and to protect the civilian population.
“France condemns in the strongest possible terms the occupation of several Palestinian homes in the village of Qusra in the West Bank by Israeli settlers, as well as the acts of violence committed against Palestinian civilians,” the French foreign ministry said.
Settlers began blockading the homes on Sunday and have defied attempts by the military to remove them, leaving residents cut off from food and other supplies.
One of the besieged homes is owned by a US citizen, drawing unusually sharp criticism from Washington.
The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, called the siege “disgusting” and said there was “no excuse for such thuggish behaviour”.
Police takeover
Against the backdrop of the blockade, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz called on Friday for the police to take over law enforcement in the occupied West Bank from the military.
The military has come under fire from the right wing for trying to remove settlers harassing Palestinians.
Katz’s office announced he had instructed the military to prepare a plan to transfer all enforcement powers regarding civil matters among Israeli communities in the West Bank to the Israel Police. The military would continue to exercise power over Palestinian residents.
“The IDF’s role is to fight Palestinian terrorism, focus on defending borders and communities against threats ... and not chase boys on the hilltops,” Katz said.
The measure, if implemented, would be a step toward Israeli annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory, something several ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government openly support.
However, Israeli media reported that a transfer of enforcement powers would be highly unlikely before national elections scheduled for Oct 27.
More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, which the UN and most governments consider illegal under international law. Israel seized the West Bank in the 1967 war but argues the territory is disputed rather than occupied.
Palestinian researcher Fares Foqahaa estimated that settlers have now seized control of 95pc of springs in the northern Jordan Valley. Adel Yassin, a Palestinian Authority water official, called it a “water war”, describing it as “the silent bullet that kills Palestinians without a sound”.
Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2026