Israeli barrier cuts off water to West Bank Palestinians before elections

Residents of Ras al-Ahmar say Israeli restrictions have cut access to water, animal feed, healthcare, as military barrier reshapes Jordan Valley.

Residents of Ras al-Ahmar, a rural Bedouin community, were forced to carry goods at night on donkeys, away from the eyes of Israeli soldiers and settlers [Moath Ghannam/Al Jazeera]

Saeed Ayed* watches over his livestock herd. The animals are starving and parched due to a two-week-long Israeli siege on the Ras al-Ahmar Bedouin community in the occupied West Bank’s Jordan Valley.

Access to the community has been blocked since mid-September, as Israeli forces continue building a barrier through Palestinian land in the area, including a road for military patrols, trenches and embankments.

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Since the road closures began, movement for Palestinians has been severely restricted. They are forced to move around at night, transporting water, fodder and milk via donkeys under the cover of darkness to avoid detection by Israeli soldiers and settlers.

Ayed told Al Jazeera that no water had entered the community over the past three days after Israeli forces sealed the access points residents had been using to bring in supplies.

“The situation is dire. We are completely besieged, and the livestock cannot survive without water and food for this long,” Ayed said. “We own 15,000 head of livestock, and we fear they will perish because of the siege.”

Ras al-Ahmar is a 300-person village home to around 50 families who have lived off livestock and herding since the 1970s. Ayed said that Israeli settler attacks – part of a wider pogrom against Palestinians across the West Bank – had intensified since February, accusing settlers of trying to force residents out to seize their land.

“We have faced livestock theft, attacks on our dwellings, beatings of residents and vandalism of our homes. This was happening almost daily, yet we refused to leave. Now, they are completely besieging us to force us out,” he added.

The greatest challenge facing residents is restricted access to medical care as a result of the siege, a particular concern for the elderly.

Disease is also rampant among livestock, particularly newborn animals. And with veterinary teams unable to reach the area and treat the animals, deaths have been reported.

The military barrier – which Israel calls Crimson Thread and says it is needed for security – runs for roughly 20km (12 miles) through the northern Jordan Valley, with a width of up to 50 metres (165 feet).

Construction expanded early this year, including the digging of trenches and the bulldozing of agricultural land that damaged wells, water networks and greenhouses. The Israeli military seized nearly 115 hectares, 85 percent of which is privately owned Palestinian land, according to Kerem Navot, which monitors Israeli land policies in the West Bank.

Abdullah Bisharat, head of the village council of Ras al-Ahmar and Atuf, a nearby rural area also facing the military blockade, told Al Jazeera that the Israeli blockade has stopped 51 schoolchildren from attending classes for two weeks because vehicles can no longer reach them.

Israeli forces confiscated a tractor belonging to the village council on Sunday, detaining its driver as he was delivering animal fodder and water to Ras al-Ahmar, Bisharat said.

“We reached out to human rights organisations, but unfortunately no one was able to break the siege. Hundreds of people there are suffering, the majority of whom are women and children,” Bisharat added.

A trench dug by Israel around the rural Bedouin community of Ras al-Ahmar has restricted their movement [File: Moath Ghannam/Al Jazeera]

The targeting of Bedouin and herding communities in the Jordan Valley is part of a mounting pressure campaign on residents to abandon their properties by restricting access to land and pastures. The tactics include settler violence, the demolition of structures and the closure of roads and access points.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has described Bedouin and herding communities as among the groups most vulnerable to displacement in the West Bank. Dozens of Palestinian communities across the West Bank have been entirely or partially displaced since 2023, when Israel began its genocide in Gaza and ramped up its attacks on the West Bank after the October 7 Hamas attack.

OCHA has reported that at least 130 Palestinian communities have experienced full or partial displacement since January 2023, with 48 communities completely displaced, including 12 from January to August.

According to OCHA, more than 2,500 Palestinians were displaced in 2026 due to settler attacks and related access restrictions, out of a total of more than 6,400 displaced since 2023.

As the Israeli elections – scheduled for October 27 – approach, Palestinian analysts and rights advocates argue that the measures being implemented on the ground are entrenching a new reality that may persist regardless of the next government.

Hassan Mleihat, chairman of the al-Baydar Organization for Defense of Bedouin Rights, told Al Jazeera that settlers appear to be rapidly intensifying measures aimed at displacing Bedouin communities in the lead-up to the elections.

Mleihat said that Israel’s objective was to expel as many Palestinians as possible and seize control of their land.

“The road being constructed near Ras al-Ahmar aims to dominate the area’s land under security pretexts and to isolate Palestinian communities into tiny geographical pockets, effectively confining their presence there,” he said.

Observers believe the significance of these Israeli measures against Palestinian communities extends beyond their immediate impact on the population, creating demographic, geographic and security-related changes that may prove irreversible even if the Israeli political landscape shifts after the elections.

Adel Shadid, an expert on Israeli affairs, told Al Jazeera that Israel currently exercises an unprecedented degree of control over Palestinian territory in the West Bank. Palestinians, he said, live in small, fragmented and scattered enclaves with Israeli control over security, military and economic matters, as well as the minutiae of daily life.

He said the change was not only limited to geography but also entails normalising the presence of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank so that they are viewed as an integral part of the region’s fabric, rather than a temporary presence or a reality subject to change.

“This shift is accompanied by the entrenchment of the perception that the West Bank is no longer viewed as a Palestinian area – or even a disputed one – but rather as a territory where Jews have the right to live in safety and security,” he said.

Shadid argued that this perspective also shapes how Israeli and Palestinian communities in the West Bank are perceived by the Israeli state. Israeli settlers are presented as a population requiring protection, while Palestinians are increasingly framed primarily as a security threat.

“This logic extends to how the land and the very elements of life are treated. A tree, for instance, might be viewed as a potential resource for acts targeting the Jewish community; consequently, cutting it down is seen, within this framework, as a security measure that warrants no intervention,” he said.

Shadid said this was also changing perceptions of the role of the Israeli army and police in the West Bank. He argued that the security forces’ role was increasingly seen as protecting settlers against a so-called “Palestinian threat”, rather than restraining settler aggression against Palestinians.

“This new reality is not tied to the current Israeli government. Rather, it creates a dynamic that will persist beyond the elections, regardless of the outcome,” Shadid said.

*Saeed Ayed is a pseudonym used at the individual’s request for security reasons.

拉斯阿赫马尔的居民表示，以色列的限制措施导致他们无法获得水、动物饲料和医疗保健，因为军事屏障正在重塑约旦河谷。

拉斯艾哈迈尔是一个贝都因人农村社区，当地居民被迫在夜间用驴子运送货物，以躲避以色列士兵和定居者的视线。[Moath Ghannam/半岛电视台]

赛义德·阿耶德*正在照看他的牲畜群。由于以色列对被占领的约旦河西岸约旦河谷拉斯阿赫马尔贝都因社区长达两周的围困，这些牲畜正遭受饥饿和干渴的折磨。

自 9 月中旬以来，该社区一直被封锁，因为以色列军队继续在该地区巴勒斯坦土地上修建隔离墙，包括军事巡逻道路、战壕和堤坝。

问题 1（共 3 题）：约旦如何应对以色列在西岸的升级行动？

以色列无人机在加沙杀害一名巴勒斯坦人，定居者在西岸杀害另一名巴勒斯坦人（共3条记录中的第2条）

3起事件中的第3起：迪拜航空袭击事件在以色列大选前向内塔尼亚胡发出新的安全信号

自道路封闭以来，巴勒斯坦人的行动受到严重限制。他们被迫在夜间出行，利用夜色掩护，用驴子运送水、饲料和牛奶，以避免被以色列士兵和定居者发现。

阿耶德告诉半岛电视台，过去三天里，以色列军队封锁了居民用来运送物资的通道，导致社区没有水供应。

“情况非常危急。我们完全被围困了，牲畜没有水和食物无法生存这么长时间，”阿耶德说。“我们有15000头牲畜，我们担心它们会因为围困而死。”

拉斯阿赫马尔村是一个拥有300名村民的村庄，约有50户人家，自20世纪70年代以来一直以畜牧业为生。阿耶德表示，自2月份以来，以色列定居者的袭击——这是针对西岸巴勒斯坦人的更大规模迫害的一部分——愈演愈烈，他指责定居者试图强迫村民离开，以夺取他们的土地。

“我们遭遇了牲畜盗窃、房屋袭击、居民殴打和房屋破坏。这些事几乎每天都在发生，但我们拒绝离开。现在，他们正彻底围困我们，想把我们赶走，”他补充道。

居民面临的最大挑战是由于围困导致就医受限，这对老年人来说尤其令人担忧。

牲畜中疾病肆虐，尤其是新生牲畜。由于兽医队无法抵达该地区救治牲畜，已有死亡病例报告。

以色列称之为“深红之线”的军事屏障，声称是为了安全而修建的，它绵延约 20 公里（12 英里），穿过约旦河谷北部，宽度达 50 米（165 英尺）。

今年年初，建设工程规模扩大，包括挖掘战壕和推平农田，导致水井、供水管网和温室遭到破坏。据监督以色列在西岸土地政策的组织“凯雷姆·纳沃特”（Kerem Navot）称，以色列军方征用了近115公顷土地，其中85%为巴勒斯坦私人土地。

拉斯艾哈迈尔村和阿图夫村（附近农村地区也面临军事封锁）村委会主席阿卜杜拉·比沙拉特告诉半岛电视台，以色列的封锁导致 51 名小学生两周无法上课，因为车辆无法到达他们那里。

比沙拉特说，周日，以色列军队没收了村委会的一辆拖拉机，并在司机向拉斯艾哈迈尔运送动物饲料和水时将其拘留。

“我们联系了人权组织，但不幸的是，没有人能够打破围困。那里数百人正在遭受苦难，其中大多数是妇女和儿童，”比沙拉特补充道。

以色列在贝都因人农村社区拉斯阿赫马尔周围挖掘的壕沟限制了他们的行动。[图片：Moath Ghannam/半岛电视台]

在约旦河谷，针对贝都因人和牧民社区的行动，是旨在迫使居民放弃家园、限制其土地和牧场使用权的施压行动的一部分。这些策略包括定居者暴力、拆毁房屋以及封锁道路和通道。

联合国人道主义事务协调厅（OCHA）指出，贝都因人和牧民社区是约旦河西岸最易流离失所的群体之一。自2023年以色列在加沙地带开始实施种族灭绝，并在10月7日哈马斯袭击事件后加大对约旦河西岸的攻击力度以来，约旦河西岸数十个巴勒斯坦社区已全部或部分流离失所。

联合国人道事务协调厅报告称，自 2023 年 1 月以来，至少有 130 个巴勒斯坦社区经历了全部或部分流离失所，其中 48 个社区完全流离失所，包括 1 月至 8 月期间的 12 个社区。

根据联合国人道事务协调厅的数据，2026 年有超过 2500 名巴勒斯坦人因定居者袭击和相关的准入限制而流离失所，而自 2023 年以来，流离失所的巴勒斯坦人总数已超过 6400 人。

随着以色列大选（定于 10 月 27 日举行）临近，巴勒斯坦分析人士和人权倡导者认为，目前在当地实施的措施正在巩固一种新的现实，这种现实可能会持续下去，无论下一届政府如何组成。

贝都因人权利捍卫组织“拜达尔组织”主席哈桑·姆莱哈特告诉半岛电视台，在选举前夕，定居者似乎正在迅速加强旨在驱逐贝都因人社区的措施。

姆莱哈特表示，以色列的目标是驱逐尽可能多的巴勒斯坦人，并夺取他们的土地。

他说：“在拉斯艾哈迈尔附近修建的这条道路，其目的是以安全为借口控制该地区的土地，并将巴勒斯坦社区隔离到狭小的地理区域内，从而有效地限制他们在那里的活动。”

观察人士认为，以色列针对巴勒斯坦社区的这些措施的意义远不止于对当地居民的直接影响，还会造成人口、地理和安全方面的变化，即使以色列的政治格局在选举后发生变化，这些变化也可能是不可逆转的。

以色列问题专家阿德尔·沙迪德告诉半岛电视台，以色列目前对约旦河西岸的巴勒斯坦领土行使着前所未有的控制权。他说，巴勒斯坦人生活在分散的小块飞地中，以色列控制着安全、军事和经济事务，以及日常生活的方方面面。

他表示，这种改变不仅限于地理位置，还意味着将以色列在西岸的非法定居点正常化，使之被视为该地区结构不可分割的一部分，而不是暂时的存在或会改变的现实。

他说：“这种转变伴随着一种观念的根深蒂固，即西岸不再被视为巴勒斯坦地区，甚至不再被视为有争议的地区，而是被视为犹太人有权安全居住的领土。”

沙迪德认为，这种视角也影响着以色列政府对西岸以色列人和巴勒斯坦人社区的看法。以色列定居者被视为需要保护的群体，而巴勒斯坦人则日益被视为安全威胁。

“这种逻辑也延伸到了人们对待土地和生命基本要素的方式。例如，一棵树可能被视为针对犹太社区的潜在资源；因此，在这种框架下，砍伐树木被视为一种安全措施，无需干预，”他说。

沙迪德表示，这也在改变人们对以色列军队和警察在西岸所扮演角色的看法。他认为，人们越来越倾向于将安全部队的角色视为保护定居者免受所谓的“巴勒斯坦威胁”，而不是遏制定居者对巴勒斯坦人的侵略。

沙迪德表示：“这种新的现实与现任以色列政府无关。相反，它创造了一种动态，无论选举结果如何，这种动态都将持续到选举之后。”

*Saeed Ayed 是本人出于安全原因要求使用的化名。