AL-BIREH, January 29, 2026 (WAFA) – The Environment Quality Authority said that Israeli occupation forces and colonists committed 685 environmental violations in the West Bank during 2025, in systematic attacks targeting natural resources and causing severe damage to water, agricultural land, biodiversity, and livestock.

In its annual report issued on Thursday, the Authority explained that these violations, documented between January 1 and December 31, 2025, come within the framework of an ongoing Israeli policy aimed at depleting Palestinian natural resources and imposing a forced environmental and economic reality, in clear violation of international humanitarian law and relevant international conventions.

The report noted that the violations targeted vital environmental sectors, particularly water resources, with dozens of attacks recorded against wells and water networks, depriving thousands of residents of access to safe water and directly affecting agriculture and food security.

The report also documented attacks on agricultural land and vegetation cover, including land leveling, burning and uprooting of thousands of trees, especially olive trees, and the establishment of colonial roads and outposts, causing severe damage to biodiversity and undermining farmers’ livelihoods.

The report documented dozens of attacks on livestock, including the destruction of animal shelters, theft and killing of animals, and restrictions on access to grazing areas, undermining both environmental balance and rural livelihoods.

The report also highlighted deliberate sewage pollution, with untreated wastewater from settlements discharged into Palestinian valleys and agricultural lands, contaminating soil and groundwater and creating serious public health hazards, particularly in Qalqiliya, Salfit, Bethlehem, Hebron, and Jericho.

The Authority stressed that these violations reflect a systematic policy linked to colonial expansion and the depletion of Palestinian natural resources in the occupied Palestinian Territory.

The Environment Quality Authority stressed that these violations constitute a full-fledged environmental crime and a blatant infringement of the Palestinian people’s right to sovereignty over their natural resources and to a safe and healthy environment, a right guaranteed under international law and United Nations resolutions.

It noted that protecting the Palestinian environment is a global humanitarian and environmental issue that requires serious intervention to ensure environmental justice and safeguard the rights of future Palestinian generations.

The Authority called on the international community, as well as human rights and environmental institutions, to assume their legal and moral responsibilities, take action to stop these violations, hold the occupation state accountable for its crimes against the Palestinian environment, and provide international protection for natural resources in the occupied Palestinian Territory.

T.R.