A tractor and water tanker belonging to the Tresh family was confiscated in the Bedouin community of Ras Al Auja last night. At around at around 10 PM  a group of soldiers came to the home of Talib Dahud Tresh and confiscated his family’s tractor and only water tanker. The family relies on this tanker as the only source of water for their livestock, as well as for drinking water and other basic household needs. Soldiers claimed that the family was stealing water from a tap belonging to Mekorot, Israel’s national water company.  In order to retrieve the tractor and tank the family was informed that they would have to pay 5,000 shekels.

Al Auja was once an oasis, famous for its water rich spring. People would come to Al Auja from all over to swim, fish and sit among the banana groves that once grew there. In 1972 Mekorot began digging two deep water wells in Al Auja. These wells lowered the water table, drying out the spring.  Today the area is a desert, crossed with dried up canals that see water one to two weeks ever year during the rainy season.

Tractors and mobile water tanks are the only way Palestinian communities in Ras Al Awja, and everywhere in Area C, have to bring drinking water to their homes.