Currently, there are studies that show that the Palestinians living in the West Bank can only access one fifth of the water of an aquifer shared with Israel, which is particularly serious given the fact that the region is going through a drought period.

This is one of the issues addressed by the study conducted by the organization Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa (HSRC), written by a group of experts in International Law from the UK, South Africa, Israel and the West Bank.

The report will be officially presented in Cape Town next week. However, some of its findings were already made public, and indicate that Israel has appropriated the natural resources of the Palestinian Territories, and has imposed a system of domination over the Palestinian population, which according to the experts, resembles colonialism and apartheid.

This is made clear in the title of the report: “Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid? A re-assessment of Israel´s practices in the occupied Palestinian territories under international law.”

The report by the South African organization can be added to another one presented by Oxfam International, titled “Rebuilding Gaza: Putting People before Politics”. The report states that 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip are being pushed further into poverty, due to Israel´s blockade.

Oxfam warns that the Palestinian people have no prospect of re-building the homes that were destroyed by the Israeli military operations which took place earlier this year, because the Israeli authorities continue to prevent construction materials from entering Gaza.

In this moment, a UN Commission is in Gaza to investigate the reports of human rights abuses that took place during the attack.