Israeli occupation forces Tuesday handed Palestinians stop construction notices of five private-owned homes and a water pipeline project in the village of al-'Aqaba to the east of Tubas, in the northern Jordan Valley, according to a local official.

Mo’ataz Basharat, an official in charge of the northern Jordan Valley’s file, informed WAFA  that Israeli armed soldiers notified to stop the construction work on a water pipeline with a total length of three kilometers, in addition to five under-construction homes belonging to local Palestinians in the said village.

The official maintained that the village of al-'Aqaba does not have access to any water resources, forcing locals to buy water from mobile tanks, noting that the  cost of one cup of water is NIS18 (about$5).

The homes belong to locals Ibrahim Y. Jaber, Sameh Jaber, Fayeq S. Abdel-Kareem, and Mohammed N. Abdel Kareem.

Israel has repeatedly demolished Palestinian homes in the area and in nearby villages under the pretext of construction without permission.

Israel is planning to annex the Jordan Valley into a completely Israeli area, primarily in agriculture, targeting to ban territorial contiguity between a future Palestinian state and the rest of the Arab world.

According to B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights center, “The Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea make up approximately 30% of the West Bank and are the most significant Palestinian land reserves. Since 1967, Israel has pursued various measures to annex this territory de facto.”

The center said Israel has prevented the development of Palestinian communities, systematically destroyed homes in Palestinian Bedouin communities, denied access to water and strictly ed Palestinians' freedom of movement.

“At the same time, Israel has exploited the resources of the area for its own needs and has allocated generous tracts of land and water resources to Israeli settlements,” noted B’Tselem.

Source: WAFA