Illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers from the outpost of Beit Horon, built on stolen Palestinian lands, shut down the main water valve supplying the Palestinian village of Beit Ur al-Fauqa, west of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank’s central part, leaving residents without access to clean water.
Local sources confirmed that the colonizers, who operate under military protection on confiscated land, invaded the area surrounding the water infrastructure and closed the primary valve.
The village council condemned the act as a form of collective punishment, noting that it followed residents’ peaceful resistance to recent land seizures and the construction of a new settler bypass road.
In a statement, the council said it had immediately contacted relevant authorities to resolve the crisis and requested access for technical crews to inspect and repair the damage.
However, the crew was forced to wait for hours near the illegal Annexation Wall on Wednesday night and was ultimately denied entry to the site, which lies within the boundaries of the illegal settlement.
The water disruption affects not only Beit Ur al-Fauqa but also neighboring communities that rely on its share of the supply, already limited by Israel’s discriminatory allocation policies across the West Bank. The council warned that the incident reflects a broader strategy of deprivation and land isolation.
The council urged international human rights organizations to intervene and ensure the immediate restoration of water access. It emphasized that residents possess official land ownership documents and that the punitive measures are in direct response to their refusal to surrender territory.
Meanwhile, colonizer bulldozers and construction crews continue to operate around the clock under military escorts, carving out new infrastructure that will further fragment the village’s land.
Of Beit Ur al-Fauqa’s 4,500 dunums, five-sixths are now effectively cut off—hemmed in by Route 443 to the south, the new bypass road to the north, military positions to the west, and Beit Horon to the east.
Israeli forces have also intensified restrictions at the military roadblock separating Beitunia from eight surrounding villages, including Beit Ur al-Fauqa. Local reports describe prolonged vehicle inspections, forced unloading of personal belongings, and the detention of young men and women for hours at a time.
On Wednesday, a group of illegal Israeli paramilitary colonizers cut down more than 200 ancient olive trees and over 100 fruit-bearing almond trees in the town of Sa’ir, located northeast of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank’s southern part.
Early Wednesday morning, illegal Israeli paramilitary colonizers set fire to parts of a Palestinian home in the town of Huwara, south of Nablus, in the northern occupied West Bank.
On Monday, Israeli colonizers chased Palestinian herders in Khirbet Al-Farisiyya, located in the northern Jordan Valley of the occupied West Bank, forcing them to abandon grazing lands under the protection of Israeli police.
Earlier Monday, On Monday, Israeli bulldozers continued leveling agricultural land in Beit Ur al-Fauqa, west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank’s central region, for the second consecutive day, as part of an expansion project serving the illegal Israeli colony of Beit Horon.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective punishment and acts of terror against civilian populations.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
Articles 53 and 147, prohibit the destruction of civilian property and classify pillage as a war crime.
