I was born in Poonch (Kashmir) and now I live in Norway. I oppose war and violence and am a firm believer in the peaceful co-existence of all nations and peoples. In my academic work I have tried to espouse the cause of the weak and the oppressed in a world dominated by power politics, misleading propaganda and violations of basic human rights. I also believe that all conscious members of society have a moral duty to stand for and further the cause of peace and human rights throughout the world.
When we awaken from this trance and
understand that these weapons do not make us safer, but rather are our
greatest existential threat, we will be able to work together to lead an
international effort to abolish them in a time-bound and verifiable
manner.
On August 6, 1945 at 8:15 am local time,
our world changed forever when the US dropped the first atomic bomb used
in war over the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
The immediate death toll was approximately 70,000 with ~140,000 to have
died by year’s end. Three days later, the US would drop a plutonium
bomb over the city of Nagasaki. The immediate death toll there was ~40,000 with ~70,000 to have died by year’s end with a combined total of ~210,000. Three weeks earlier, following the atomic bombing of New Mexico with the Trinity test,
the nuclear age was thrust upon mankind. The nuclear legacies from
victims and survivors of the atomic bombings, Hibakusha, and their
history lingers to this day. The legacy extends from the mining
for the nuclear materials and its impact on local communities to the
processing, testing, use, storage, and waste management, as well as the
impacts and risks of nuclear power to this day.
Amnesic of past history and events, the United States initiated a new arms race beginning in 2010 with then-President Barack Obama’s “grand bargain”
to garner favor with the Republican Congress to ratify the New START
Treaty. Following our lead, all of the remaining nine nuclear nations
are working to modernize their stockpiles as well.
With the advent of artificial intelligence programs already utilized by President Donald Trump’s Department of War and the race to bring this technology to war, we move ever closer to the brink of nuclear war,
either by intent, miscalculation, mistake, or cyber attack using
disruptive technologies. This fact was recognized by the Bulletin of
Atomic Scientists, moving their Doomsday Clock forward this past January to 85 seconds to midnight.
In order to survive, we must awaken from
the myth of deterrence, realizing it for what it is, the greatest driver
of the arms race. The unexamined assumptions that these weapons must
exist is blatantly false. We know how to build these weapons, and we
know how to disassemble them. From a height of roughly 64,000 weapons in
1986 we have reduced global stockpiles to approximately 12,187 currently. We also know that even a “limited nuclear war” in a remote region of the world, for example, between India and Pakistan, using less than one half of 1% of global stockpiles, will result in a global nuclear famine. This could potentially result in up to 2 billion deaths on the planet due to the catastrophic climate change that would follow.
The Hibakusha have a mantra of “never
again.” We owe a debt to the Hibakusha, their memory, and future
generations to demand the complete abolition of these weapons.
When we awaken from this trance and
understand that these weapons do not make us safer, but rather are our
greatest existential threat, we will be able to work together to lead an
international effort to abolish them in a time-bound and verifiable
manner.
What is required in this race to save
ourselves is the political courage and will to do so. Thankfully, there
is hope both internationally and nationally. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
has been ratified by 75 nations and signed by 25 additional nations
representing a majority of the global population. Here at home the Back From the Brink grassroots movement currently has endorsing congressional resolutions. There are 70 members of Congress, who have endorsed House Resolution 317 and Senate Resolution 323.
The Hibakusha have a mantra of “never
again.” We owe a debt to the Hibakusha, their memory, and future
generations to demand the complete abolition of these weapons. We must
demand our elected officials endorse this campaign or move out of the
way for those who will.
It’s
been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late
wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should
serve the public good, not corporate profits.
It was clear to us
from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid
advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling
us what to think or do.
Many people said we wouldn’t last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong.
Together
with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an
independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and
corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To
inspire. To ignite change for the common good.
Building Common
Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on
the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry
destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent
billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their
favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work.
But
here’s the urgent message from me today. It’s never been this bad out
there. And it’s never been this hard to keep us going. At the very
moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are
intensifying. We need your support now more than ever.
We
don’t accept corporate advertising and never will. We don’t have a
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When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives?
—Craig Brown, Co-founder
about:blank
about:blank
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Robert Dodge, MD, is a family physician
practicing in Ventura, California. He serves on the board of Physicians
for Social Responsibility Los Angeles (www.psr-la.org), and serves as
the cochair of the Committee to Abolish Nuclear Weapons of National
Physicians for Social Responsibility (www.psr.org). Physicians for
Social Responsibility is the US Affiliate of the International
Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War who received the 1985 Nobel
Peace Prize and is a partner organization of ICAN, recipient of the
2017 Nobel Peace Prize. He also serves on the Back from the Brink
(www.preventnuclearwar.org) steering committee.
President Donald Trump calls his Gaza
agreement a “major milestone” toward peace. For Palestinians living
beneath Israeli aircraft and beside an ever-advancing military boundary,
that triumphal language bears little resemblance to reality. Israel
killed 18 Palestinians on Sunday in one of the deadliest days since the
supposed ceasefire began, while survivors described attacks striking the
enclave from north to south. Gaza health authorities say at least 1,230
Palestinians—most of them civilians—have been killed since the
Trump-backed agreement was reached in October.
Nor has the ceasefire produced the
promised Israeli withdrawal. Israeli forces have instead expanded their
control from 53 percent of Gaza to as much as 70 percent, pushing more
families from their homes and confining nearly two million people to an
increasingly narrow strip of devastated coastline. Israeli officials now
insist that no withdrawal will begin until Hamas has completely
disarmed and its tunnels have been destroyed, while omitting the
continuing attacks and territorial seizures that Palestinian factions
say violate the agreement.
Reuters reporters Nidal Al-Mughrabi and Dawoud Abu Alkas document
the chasm between the diplomatic spectacle and Gaza’s grim reality:
civilians killed under the banner of peace, military occupation
expanding beneath the language of withdrawal, and displaced families
watching Israel’s “yellow line” move steadily closer to their tents. As
one Palestinian woman told Reuters, “Our entire life is gone, our entire
future is gone, our children’s future is gone.” In Gaza, the peace
being celebrated in Washington looks increasingly like war conducted
under a new name.Israel Escalates Gaza Attacks as Trump Celebrates a
‘Historic’ Ceasefire Deal
What a stark contrast—and a reminder that
Israel is not on board with any meaningful ceasefire. Much like
Washington’s other wars fought on Israel’s behalf, the Trump
administration’s plan appears focused on disarming Israel’s opponents
while imposing few visible restraints on the Israeli military.
On Monday, Nikolay Mladenov, Trump’s Gaza
envoy to the so-called Board of Peace, held what the board described as a
“constructive and detailed” meeting with Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu. The board declared that its unquestioned objective
was the “complete decommissioning of weapons” in Gaza and a transition
to civilian government.
But Palestinians experienced a very
different reality. “It was as if the war has resumed,” Gaza resident Aya
Mohammad Zaki told Reuters, describing attacks occurring nearly every
hour across northern, central and southern Gaza. Among those killed
Sunday were a couple and their child in an Israeli strike on a Gaza City
apartment. While Trump’s board discusses disarming Gaza, Israeli bombs
continue falling on Palestinian families.
According to Drop Site News,
Israeli attacks have killed at least 34 Palestinians and wounded 134
across Gaza since President Donald Trump announced what he called a
“historic agreement” and Hamas conditionally accepted the ceasefire
plan’s second phase. Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported that 19 Palestinians were killed and 35 injured during the latest 24-hour period.
The ministry says the recorded toll since
October 7, 2023, has reached 73,375 Palestinians killed and 174,220
wounded. Since October 11, the first full day of the nominal ceasefire,
Israeli forces have reportedly killed at least 1,250 Palestinians and
injured 4,110, while recovery crews have retrieved another 804 bodies
from beneath the rubble.
A ceasefire is supposed to mean safety.
For displaced Palestinians sheltering beside Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in
Deir al-Balah, it brought another night of terror, destruction and
forced flight.
Footage reported by Drop Site contributor
Abdel Qader Sabbah documents the aftermath of an Israeli strike that
destroyed a central medical warehouse containing essential dialysis
supplies and shredded nearby tents. Families who had gone to sleep
believing conditions might finally improve awoke to evacuation orders,
fled barefoot and returned to find their shelter, food, water and
bedding buried beneath the wreckage.
“We went to sleep under a ceasefire… thinking that the situation would get better.”
Washington calls this peace while
Israel continues bombing homes, destroying medical supplies, displacing
families and expanding the territory under its military control.
Palestinians are being asked to surrender their weapons and trust a
political process that has yet to protect them from Israeli attacks—or
require Israel to surrender anything in return.
A ceasefire cannot be measured by
statements from Trump’s Board of Peace, meetings with Netanyahu or
promises of some future withdrawal. It must be measured by whether
Palestinians can sleep without being bombed, receive medical treatment,
return home and live without an occupying army steadily closing in
around them. By that standard, Gaza does not have peace. It has an
occupation and a continuing war concealed beneath the language of
diplomacy.
Editor’s Note: At a
moment when the once vaunted model of responsible journalism is
overwhelmingly the play thing of self-serving billionaires and their
corporate scribes, alternatives of integrity are desperately needed, and
ScheerPost is one of them. Please support our independent journalism by
contributing to our online donation platform, Network for Good, or send
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Donald Trump, far right, and Pete Hegseth,
second from right, attend the dignified transfer of four U.S. service
members recently killed in the Middle East, on July 22, 2026, at Dover
Air Force Base, Del. Photo: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
The Pentagon is using a new method of
tallying the number of U.S. soldiers killed and wounded in the Iran war
that a U.S. government official said was “designed to obscure the
count.”
Since the start of the conflict, the
Department of War has posted the official count of casualties on the
website of the Defense Casualty Analysis System, or DCAS, which tracks “deceased, wounded, ill or injured” service members for Congress and the president. This official total of dead and wounded personnel, as documented over months of reporting by The Intercept, has been a gross undercount, stemming from what that same official previously called a “casualty cover-up.”
But after a series of Iranian strikes on
U.S. facilities in the Middle East in July, the Pentagon last week
rolled out a new approach. Casualties since July 7 are now counted
separately on a new webpage with a generic designation: “Overseas
Operations.”
Two hundred and seventy-three U.S. troops were killed or wounded since July 7, according to the Monday total on the new Overseas Operations page.
When combined with the existing DCAS page
for the Iran war, the official count stands at 704, an 83 percent
increase in casualties since April 8, the day the first ceasefire deal was struck between the Trump administration and Iran. When counting known casualties overlooked by the DCAS page, the total exceeds 900 personnel.
For months, the Pentagon has failed to
comment on DCAS anomalies reported by The Intercept nor the reason for
the change in the way it now counts casualties, which was first reported
by the New York Times.
Last week, the Pentagon told the newspaper that “since Operation Epic
Fury has concluded, the department classifies casualties as overseas
operations in the CENTCOM area of responsibility.” Central Command
oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East.
“This is certainly designed to conceal the
count of the wounded,” the official said, while noting that
“incompetence” has also caused confusion in the casualty count.
The change comes after a July 20 rant by
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell who claimed reports of a Pentagon
effort to withhold news of dozens of U.S. casualties were “baseless and malicious” and a U.S. official’s disclosure to The Intercept that same day that recent attacks on U.S. bases by Iran had wounded “far more” personnel than the Pentagon had acknowledged.
The casualty spike resulted from Iranian
attacks on at least nine U.S. outposts across the Middle East since July
9, according to a second U.S. official who spoke to The Intercept on
the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak
with the press.
Iran’s military managed to overwhelm U.S. air defense systems using a mix of attack drones and advanced ballistic missiles, despite months of claims by President Donald Trump and self-styled War Secretary Pete Hegseth that Iran’s military was annihilated.
Last month, the tally of wounded personnel
fluctuated by the day in the wake of increased Iranian attacks. On July
21, the casualty count on DCAS for Operation Epic Fury, the military’s
official designation for the Iran war, stood at 500. Now, it has shrunk
to 431.
For months, The Intercept found anomalies with the counts offered on the DCAS website. On April 21, for example, the number of wounded-in-action troops declined by 15 without
public acknowledgment by the War Department. Despite repeated questions
for months, the Pentagon has not commented on the disparities in its
casualty count.
Prior reporting by The Intercept also found DCAS is missing hundreds
of dead and wounded personnel from Epic Fury. The Pentagon list of the
names of the dead is still missing Maj. Sorffly Davius, a signals and
communication officer with the New York Army National Guard who was
assigned to the headquarters of the 42nd Infantry Division and
reportedly died of sudden illness while on duty in Camp Buehring,
Kuwait, on March 6. Davius’s death was widely acknowledged even as it
was excluded from the the official count: Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y.,
spoke about him during a memorial service that month, and Gen. Dan Caine, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recognized Davius while “honoring our fallen.”
While DCAS provides a running tally of
“non-hostile” deaths — meaning those who died from accidents or by
illness — it doesn’t include “non-hostile” injuries. The DCAS figures
for Epic Fury show that 65 Navy personnel were wounded in action.
Missing, however, are the more than 200 sailors treated for smoke inhalation or lacerations due to a March 12 fire that raged aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford. The aircraft carrier had been conducting round-the-clock flight operations to, Caine said, “project combat power” in the Middle East.
Recent reporting
by the War Horse, using Pentagon records obtained via the Freedom of
Information Act, found more than 400 casualties were recorded between
February 28 and April 8. Seventy occurred on March 18 alone, but this
huge single-day toll was never reported by the Pentagon.
The records provide more granular detail
than DCAS, revealing that at least 17 troops sustained life-threatening
injuries. They show that U.S. troops suffered shrapnel wounds, broken
bones, smoke inhalation, and other injuries. The most common injury
recorded, however, was head trauma — which affected at least 170 troops,
according to the data.
President Donald Trump has long dismissed brain injuries as “headaches” and “not serious.”
The U.S. government continues to
demonstrate its knack for pursuing remarkably foolish foreign policies
that have terrible consequences.
Many thought that President Trump was
going to rectify this problem, at least somewhat. After all, he promised
to shut down the Ukraine War as soon as he moved into the White House,
if not before he did! Moreover, he said no more forever wars, no more
wars in pursuit of regime change.
But Trump has failed. Not only did he fail
to end the fighting in Ukraine, but he has also twice gone to war
against Iran – the 12-Day War in June 2025 and the disastrous war that
he and Benjamin Netanyahu started on February 28, 2026, which could be
the greatest strategic blunder In U.S. history. Furthermore, he
kidnapped Venezuela’s president and, by his own account, is running that
country as if it is an American colony, not a sovereign state. And like
his predecessor in the White House, President Joe Biden, he is
complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its endless pogroms in the
West Bank.
How did we end up in this dreadful situation? And how can we rectify it?
There is no guaranteed way to avoid
foreign policy errors. But one way to minimize the chance of getting
into serious trouble is to debate the issues of the day openly, so that
critics of conventional wisdom or particular government policies can
have their say. Media institutions are hugely important in fostering
this kind of debate, which is why freedom of the press is protected in
the United States. It allows critics to make their views known to large
numbers of people and it provides legitimacy. Critics of existing policy
are not always right, but sometimes they speak truth to power and help
us avoid or correct big mistakes.
As almost every reader of Antiwar.com
knows, the mainstream media in the United States have become much less
willing to provide dissenters with a platform since the Cold War ended.
Mainstream media outlets often seem to speak with one voice on the big
foreign policy issues of the day and that voice usually backs U.S.
government policy. This situation is not healthy, and it helps explains
why America’s standing in the world has declined in recent decades.
Antiwar.com plays an enormously important
role in filling this dangerous void in our public discourse. It provides
an indispensable platform for critics to challenge the reigning views
of the foreign policy establishment. This is essential for increasing
the likelihood that the United States will pursue wiser policies. For
this reason, I urge readers to generously support Antiwar.com. In these
troubled times, a flourishing Antiwar.com is very much in the U.S.
national interest.
If you liked this article, please support Antiwar.com. We are 100% reader-supported.
John J. Mearsheimer, PhD, is an American
professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. More
recently Mearsheimer has attracted attention for co-authoring and
publishing the article The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, which
was subsequently published as a book.
Israeli forces killed at least 26 people
in Gaza over the weekend, striking apartment blocks, tent camps and the
medicine warehouses of a hospital, in the territory’s deadliest days in
weeks. The killings came as US President Donald Trump threatened Iran
with “decapitation” after a week of American strikes across the region.
Israel killed at least seven people on
Saturday and destroyed two of the four medicine warehouses of Al-Aqsa
Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Al Jazeera reported. Gaza Health
Ministry Director-General Munir al-Bursh said the destruction “turns
medicine and illness itself into a tool of war.”
Palestinians
try to extinguish a burning car after an Israeli military strike in
Gaza City, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. [AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi]
The Associated Press reported that the
Israeli military killed at least 17 more people, children among them,
from Saturday night through Sunday, according to local hospitals. Al
Jazeera counted 19 dead Sunday and put the weekend toll at 26. Among the
dead were Abdullah Abu al-Teif, 33, his pregnant wife Abeer Anan, 29,
and their five-year-old son Azzam, killed at the Al-Sousi Tower in
western Gaza City. The Israeli military said the strikes had targeted
militant operatives.
The bloodshed unfolded behind an official
propaganda barrage of peace. On Thursday Trump announced a “HISTORIC
agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas”; on Saturday he claimed
the “perimeters of a deal” to reopen the Strait of Hormuz had been
agreed. As he spoke, Israeli bombs fell on Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and
Khan Younis, and US bombers massed for what Trump said Sunday “would
have been the biggest attack since World War II.”
Israel has attacked Gaza on 270 of the 297
days since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, 2025, an Al Jazeera
analysis reported as of Monday. Gaza’s Health Ministry counts at least
1,250 Palestinians killed since the truce began; five Israeli soldiers
have died in the same period, per the Associated Press.
The “ceasefires” are merely the framework
for the permanent annexation of Gaza and the expansion of the war.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Sunday that the Israeli-held
zone had reached 60 to 70 percent of Gaza, and Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman Doron Spielman told the AP: “Disarming
means physically giving up the weapons. Nothing less.”
The AP reported that Israel’s demands,
according to a person with knowledge of the deal, include the freedom to
keep conducting military operations in Gaza. National Security Minister
Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote in the Telegram on July 31 that “assassinations in Gaza must continue.”
The Israeli army is meanwhile in the
second week of a “wide-scale military operation” Netanyahu ordered
across the West Bank after settlers from the Havat Gilad outpost
attacked the village of Tal on July 24. Four Palestinians of the Ramadan
family and two Israelis died.
The army deployed 26 battalions and raided
towns from Jenin to Hebron, Al Jazeera reported on July 28; Army Radio
counted 30 settler attacks the following weekend, including two mosques
set on fire and a family home in Urif that more than 150 settlers set
alight—an infant survived because her grandfather pulled her from her
crib.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on
July 24 that Palestinian villages should “look like the refugee camps in
Nablus and Tulkarem.” According to UN figures, 1,122 Palestinians have
been killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 2023, at
least 246 of them children.
The assault on Gaza comes as Trump
threatens to destroy the Iranian government. “Iranian Leadership is
unbelievably duplicitous!” he wrote Monday on Truth Social. In the Oval
Office later that day he said, “This is the last chance for them to sign
a good document,” adding that he wanted to give “every last chance
before decapitation.”
The threats followed a week of American
bombardment. After Trump said July 27 that US strikes were paused for
mediation, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard fired ballistic missiles on July
28 at a base housing US troops in Jordan, and the next day the US
military announced a “heavy wave of strikes” on dozens of sites across
Iran—command centers, missile and drone facilities and coastal defense
sites.
Iranian state media reported that a
missile struck a house on Qeshm Island, killing Qeisar Jafari, a taxi
driver, his wife Zahra and their two-year-old son Sina. The same day, US
and Saudi warplanes struck militia sites across seven Iraqi provinces;
the Popular Mobilization Forces said 20 of its fighters were killed, and
two Iraqi militia officials told the AP that six Iranian advisers died.
CBS News reported Friday that the US and
Israel were preparing a bombing campaign against Iranian power plants
and refineries. In a Truth Social post late Saturday, Trump announced he
had canceled the attack, writing that “Iran, and other Middle Eastern
Countries” had asked him to hold off.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth wrote Sunday
on X: “The @DeptofWar was ready to go—and remains ready—at levels not
seen since World War 2. Locked and loaded.”
These realities render all the talk of
“ceasefire” by Trump and Netanyahu moot: There is an ongoing regional
war throughout the Middle East, in which people are being killed every
day.
Houthi missiles and drones have struck
Saudi tankers and Aramco facilities since the group declared an embargo
on Saudi shipping July 20; a drone set two gas vessels ablaze at Egypt’s
port of Damietta July 29. Kuwait said Saturday it destroyed hostile
drones over its territory and blamed Iran; Israel killed Hezbollah
fighters in southern Lebanon Saturday and shelled southern Syria on July
30.
Trump’s claims of peace negotiations met a
flat denial from Tehran. “We are not negotiating with the United States
at this time,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said
Monday; Iran says its only talks are with Oman, over a temporary
shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz.
No ceasefire is in effect with Iran—the June memorandum collapsed in early July, and TheGuardian wrote Monday that the weekend reversal was thought to be Trump’s 12th cancellation of threatened strikes.
On CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday,
Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona attacked the war as mismanaged:
“Here’s a guy who got us into this without a strategic goal, without a
plan, without a timeline.” His remedy was to win it: “put some people in
here that know how to do this, how to talk to the Iranians.” He did not
call for an end to the war and said nothing about Gaza.
At a Senate hearing on July 21, Democratic
Senator Gary Peters of Michigan demanded that the administration win
the war, telling Hegseth: “You don’t have a long-term plan to actually
win this war. Win the war.”
The war is deeply unpopular: 64 percent of
Americans told an AP-NORC poll published July 30 that it has not been
worth fighting, and 60 percent told Quinnipiac July 29 they oppose US
military action against Iran. But in Washington, the argument is over
how the war should be fought, not how to end it.
As first light reaches the scattered tents
and animal pens of Ras al-Ahmar in the northern Jordan Valley, the
silence is broken only by the cries of thirsty livestock waiting for
water that no longer comes.
Days after Israeli forces destroyed three of the Palestinian
community’s main water wells, residents are scrambling to secure enough
water for their families, crops and animals in one of the occupied West Bank’s driest regions.
For 60-year-old Ali Bani Odeh, the
destruction of the wells was more than merely the loss of
infrastructure. A father of four and grandfather of 14, he has spent
decades farming and raising livestock to support his family in Ras
al-Ahmar.
Now, like dozens of other families, he is
uncertain how long they can continue living on the land without a
reliable water supply.
“Water is everything for us,” Ali told Middle East Eye.
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“Without water, we cannot live. We need it
for our families, our sheep and our crops. Since the wells were
destroyed, we have been forced to bring water from town at a much higher
cost, and even then, we’re not always allowed to pass.”
Families must now haul water from distant
towns at far greater expense, while military checkpoints and movement
restrictions frequently delay or prevent tankers from reaching the
village.
‘The wells were the lifeline of this community’
– Abdullah Bisharat, head of the village council
According to Ras al-Ahmar village council
head Abdullah Bisharat, the three destroyed wells supplied more than 47
Palestinian families, serving over 600 people and irrigating around
7,500 dunams of farmland.
The wells also sustained thousands of sheep and goats, the main source of income for many families.
“The wells were the lifeline of this community,” Bisharat said.
“Their destruction has affected every
aspect of daily life, from drinking water and agriculture to livestock,
leaving dozens of families struggling to meet their most basic needs.”
Settler attacks
Residents say the destruction marked the worst escalation in a months-long water crisis caused by Israeli settler attacks.
They say settlers repeatedly cut the
pipelines supplying the community, forcing families to rely on costly
water tankers. This time, however, the wells themselves were destroyed,
eliminating the community’s main source of water.
Ali’s son, Obeida Bani Odeh, fears the
loss of the wells threatens not only his family’s livelihood but also
their future in Ras al-Ahmar.
How Israeli settler terrorism threatens the basics of Palestinian survival
“We cannot survive here without water,” Obeida said.
“For months, the pipelines supplying our
community were repeatedly cut, and we had to bring water from nearby
towns, often at three times the usual cost.
“Now the wells have been destroyed, and there is no reliable source of water left for our families or our livestock.”
He said the challenges extend beyond water
shortages. Settler attacks and movement restrictions have made it
increasingly difficult to bring in water, animal feed and other
essential supplies.
“The settlers attack everyone, from the young to the old,” Obeida said.
“They want to make people afraid and force them to leave. But we have been living on this land for generations.”
The three destroyed wells supplied more than 47 Palestinian families, around 600 people (Mojahid Nawahda/MEE)
Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live in
the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem across roughly 300 settlements
and outposts. The settlements are regarded as illegal under
international law, according to the International Court of Justice.
Settler attacks on Palestinian herding
communities have increased sharply in recent years. Between January 2023
and April 2026, at least 5,910 Palestinians were internally displaced due to settler violence in the West Bank, according to UN data.
‘A silent war’
Aref Daraghmeh, a human rights activist,
says the destruction of water infrastructure in Ras al-Ahmar reflects a
broader struggle over control of natural resources in the Jordan Valley.
“Water has become a silent war against Palestinians in the Jordan Valley,” Daraghmeh told MEE.
“The occupation has taken control of many
Palestinian water sources, while the water available to Palestinian
communities is insufficient for agriculture and sustaining life on the
land.”
‘Policy to displace us’: How settler attacks are drying up the West Bank
Daraghmeh said restrictions on water
access have contributed to the decline of Palestinian agriculture,
making it increasingly difficult for farmers and herders to sustain
their livelihoods. As water becomes harder to access, he argues,
communities face growing pressure to leave their land while settlement
agriculture continues to expand across the Jordan Valley.
He added that movement restrictions have compounded those challenges.
“The Jordan Valley is effectively under
closure,” Daraghmeh said. “Military checkpoints control movement, roads
are restricted, and residents often have to wait for hours before they
can enter or leave their communities.”
For farmers and herders, those
restrictions make it harder to reach grazing land and transport
livestock, produce and agricultural supplies, adding to the pressures
already created by limited access to water.
But for Ali Bani Odeh, leaving Ras
al-Ahmar is not an option. Displaced from his home as a child, he says
he will not leave again.
“I have left before, but I will not leave this place,” Ali said.
“If we leave, they will take over the land. We are staying because this is where our lives and our history are.”
