Israeli settlers intensify attacks in West Bank, targeting water supplies 

Israeli settlers have attacked several parts of the occupied West Bank, seizing or destroying Palestinian homes and damaging essential supplies like water springs, electricity lines, and greenhouses, as they intensify their assaults and land seizures in recent weeks.

Israeli settlers damaged the main electricity line supplying the village of al-Maniya to the southeast of Bethlehem, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported on Friday, citing Palestinian security sources.

The settlers reportedly destroyed the electricity line and cut power to the community, causing fear and panic among residents. It was the second such incident in the village this week.

Hours later, Israeli settlers vandalised agricultural greenhouses near the Shufa military checkpoint in the southeast of Tulkarem, local witnesses told Wafa, adding that the settlers tore the nets protecting the greenhouses, damaging agricultural facilities owned by a family from the village of Shufa.

Also on Friday, Wafa reported that Israeli settlers had taken control of Ein Rawabi spring in the northeast of Jerusalem after vandalising the site in a new attack targeting a vital water source relied upon by Bedouin communities in the area.

The Jerusalem Governorate said in a statement that the spring is the only water source for the local shepherds and their livestock of about 1,300 sheep. The seizure poses a direct threat to the livelihoods of dozens of Bedouin families, the governorate warned.

Meanwhile, Israeli settlers seized the property of Mohammad Salameh in Jalud village of the occupied West Bank when he ⁠was building a home for his recently engaged son, the Reuters news agency reported on Friday.

Salameh said appeals to Israeli authorities did not help. He has lost his ⁠home and fears the same fate will follow his Palestinian neighbours, as they get increasingly surrounded by illegal Israeli settlements and outposts.

“If there is law and order, then they [Israeli settlers] will leave,” Salameh told Reuters. “But if they succeed in taking one, then the rest will follow.”

Wafa reported that attacks by Israeli settlers have intensified in recent weeks, including raids on homes and attempts to run over Palestinians with vehicles.

The attacks mark a rise in Israeli settler assaults on Palestinian villages, directly impacting their livelihoods.

There are an estimated 500,000 Israelis among roughly 3 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Palestinians have for years reported vandalism, damage to farmland, and attacks linked with settlement expansion.

A United Nations inquiry last month reported that Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian villages and agricultural land had surged since 2023 by ⁠130 percent.