Natural springs and centuries-old pools across the occupied West Bank have traditionally offered relief from the region’s intense summer heat and served as an important source of water for Palestinian communities, supporting both tourism and agriculture.
But access to many of these water sources is becoming increasingly restricted for the 2.8 million Palestinians living in the territory, as Israeli settlers, backed by a hard-line government, intensify efforts to take control of springs and archaeological and heritage sites.
In one case this summer, water from a natural spring serving the Palestinian village of Fasayil was diverted to a nearby ancient pool. The people who redirected the water used it to fill the pool and promoted it as a new tourist attraction named after Herod, the Roman-appointed king of Judea.
Under agreements reached in the 1990s, the pool is located in Area C, which remains under full Israeli military control. Research by Dror Etkes, head of settlement watchdog Kerem Navot, found that the land was privately owned.
Palestinian farmer Saad Nemer of Fasayil said the diversion had severely affected his farmland. He said his family possesses documents showing ownership of the land. COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for civilian affairs in the West Bank, acknowledged that the water had been diverted “without authorization” and said the matter would be investigated.
Other swimming spots have also become flashpoints. An Israeli father of six was shot and killed last week by a Palestinian at a spring in the northern West Bank while he was swimming with his eldest son ahead of the Yom Kippur holiday.
Israel backs Jewish heritage projects
Israel has controlled the West Bank since capturing the territory, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, from Jordan and Egypt during the 1967 war. Since then, Israel has established settlements housing more than half a million Israelis on land Palestinians seek for a future independent state.
Most of the international community considers the settlements illegal. Earlier this month, amid increased settler violence and actions that have displaced Palestinians, the British government accused Israel of turning “a blind eye” to what it described as “ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank — perpetrated by settler terrorists.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned settler violence but attributed it to a “handful of rioters” whom he said were harming the reputation of the “law-abiding settler public.”
Israeli rights group B’Tselem said efforts to take control of and designate heritage sites are part of a broader campaign. In a report published this month, the group said such designations are used to strengthen claims about Israel’s and Jewish people’s historical, cultural and religious connections to the West Bank.
Alon Arad, executive director of Emek Shaveh, an Israeli group opposed to the politicization of archaeology in Israel and the Palestinian territories, said naming the pool near Fasayil after Herod was an effort to associate the site with Jewish history.
The site has never undergone archaeological excavation, making its exact construction date unclear. However, excavations by the archaeology unit of Israel’s Civil Administration have found other ruins in the area dating to Herod’s reign in the first century B.C.E.
Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu told The Associated Press that the pool would be drained after the Jewish holidays in early October so government archaeologists could conduct a full survey.
Eliyahu praised those who diverted the water and said the government had allocated about $1 million to rehabilitate the site. He said this was part of at least $166 million allocated for excavations and infrastructure at more than 100 sites he described as connected to Jewish heritage in the West Bank.
“We’ll turn this place into the Garden of Eden,” Eliyahu said while visiting the pool near the Petzael settlement.
“There is no such thing as a Palestinian nation,” he added before entering the water.
Water restrictions leave Palestinian fields dry
The dispute over access to water in this fertile part of the West Bank reflects the broader struggle for control of the territory, particularly the Jordan Valley. Palestinians regard the area as an important agricultural region for a future state, while Israel considers it strategically important for its eastern border.
Palestinians have faced restrictions and shortages in access to water since Israel took control of the West Bank in 1967. Interim peace agreements reached in the 1990s recognized Palestinian water rights but maintained a system under which about 80% of water extracted from the main aquifer was allocated for Israeli use.
Settler attacks have further intensified the problem. According to a July report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, settlers damaged, destroyed or seized about 160 water and sanitation facilities, including pipelines and cisterns, in Palestinian communities in 2026.
The report said attacks increasingly targeted shared water infrastructure and disrupted supplies to entire communities or large parts of them.
In Al Auja in the Jordan Valley, the seizure of local natural springs by settlers has forced some Palestinian farmers to stop cultivating their land.
Murad al-Juba, 53, once produced large quantities of fruits and vegetables, including cantaloupes, eggplants, bananas and tomatoes. But he said he has been unable to plant crops since settlers moved into the area, harassed residents and diverted the spring water.
“All these farms depend on the spring, but today, the spring is gone, because the settlers took it,” Juba said.
More recently, settlers have “completely taken over” the spring’s waterfall and transformed the surrounding area into a “quasi-military zone,” said Hani al-Njoum, the local mayor. He said the situation has seriously harmed both tourism and agriculture.
“This land was bountiful,” Juba said. “Today, it is a desert.”