DHAKA: Palestine has decried Israel’s practice of siphoning off water supplies from large areas of the occupied West Bank.

In a statement issued on Thursday (June 16), the office of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said that Israel was “waging a water war” against the Palestinians, reports the Al Jazeera.

“Israel wants to prevent Palestinians from leading a dignified life and uses its control over our water resources to this end; while illegal Israeli settlements enjoy uninterrupted water service, Palestinians are forced to spend great sums of money to buy water that is theirs in the first place,” Hamdallah said in the statement.

Mekorot, the main supplier of water to Palestinian towns and cities, is accused of manipulating water supplies to the municipality of Jenin, several Nablus villages and the city of Salfit and its surrounding villages, leaving tens of thousands of Palestinians without access to safe drinking water during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Jamal Dajani, director of strategic media and communications at the prime minister’s office, called Mekorot’s practice “inhumane and outrageous”.

On Tuesday (June 14), the executive director of the Palestinian Hydrology Group, an NGO focusing on water and sanitation issues, told Al Jazeera that “some areas had not received any water for more than 40 days.”

Israel’s national water company, Mekorot, denied cutting the water supplies to large parts of the occupied West Bank, saying there was only broad reduction in water supply to the Palestinians.

BDST: 0144 HRS, JUN 17, 2016
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