In front of a small tent in Khirbet Makhoul in the northern Palestinian Valley, Yousef Bisharat's children sit in a bucket of water, where the little ones play by spraying water on each other's bodies, escaping the scorching sun, in one of the world's lowest, making life there almost impossible.
Youssef Bisharat comes out of his tent calling on his children to enter the tent for fear of heat stroke, and says that children are not used to sitting inside, but staying outside the tent undoubtedly means death, as no one can tolerate these high temperatures.
"We melt, this is our life here in the Jordan Valley, the tent is not enough to protect against the sun's flames, the children sit in the water all the time, this is our cooling device," says Bisharat.
Residents' tents in Khirbet Makhoul in the Jordan Valley do not protect against the flames of the sun and increase the suffering of high temperatures (Al-Jazeera)
Water occupation
Yousef Bisharat lives with four other Palestinian families in Khirbet Makhoul in the northern Jordan Valley, one of 4 Bedouin communities and communities scattered along the northern Jordan Valley since the Israeli occupation in 27.
Israel denies them water and electricity lines, and deprives them of the most basic necessities of life as part of a plan to deport them from their lands and control them. While the population relies on livestock as a source of income, the occupying forces deny Bisharat and his neighbours the ability to build water networks for their daily use and irrigate their livestock.
"The water line connecting the settlement on the opposite mountain passes in front of my tent, and is only about 3 meters away, but I am deprived of extending a smaller line for my children and the livestock I live from raising," he said, adding, "I need daily to transport water from distant areas and through water tankers that travel long distances to reach us, and in this very hot weather, their water consumption almost doubles."
Yusuf Bisharat's family needs about 10 glasses of water every two days at a cost of up to 250 shekels, but Bisharat says their actual need is higher, especially with sheep needing more water in such a very hot climate, but the cost of buying and transporting water is onerous for Bisharat and other families in Khirbet Makhoul.
Israel has established a company to transfer water from springs scattered in the northern Jordan Valley to settlements and army camps stationed on the tops of the mountains, and the Israeli company "Mekorot" is one of the largest companies in pumping and transporting water over vast distances in the fields of the northern Jordan Valley, but it is intended for settlers only, and no Palestinian can benefit from it.
Since 1967, Israel has controlled more than 13 springs in Palestinian Bedouin areas, such as Ein al-Sakot, al-Bayda, al-Maleh, and Ein al-Hilweh, turning a number of them into nature reserves and parks, while using the other part to supply water to settlements through Mekorot lines.
Studies prepared by Palestinian researchers and human rights defenders show that the average per capita water consumption of settlers in the northern Jordan Valley is 8 times higher than that of a Palestinian individual.
Sitting most of the day in the water is the only way for children in the Jordan Valley to face the high temperatures (Al-Jazeera)
Constant harassment
Israel prevents Palestinians in the Jordan Valley from building and constructing homes, as well as from moving freely and grazing in large areas of grazing fields, on the pretext that these plains are military training areas, so residents rely on tents to live on their land in the Jordan Valley.
These tents lack basic necessities of life, and Israel constantly pursues tent residents and sends them demolition notices, as happened with Youssef Bisharat when his tent in Khirbet Makhoul was demolished more than four times in recent years.
When we met the family of Youssef Bisharat, the Israeli occupation forces detained his eldest son while he was grazing sheep in a field near their tent, where they took him to an unknown destination on the pretext that he and his sheep had crossed the boundaries of an Israeli occupation army camp.
While some 9000,<> settlers receive all basic and recreational services in settlements in the Jordan Valley, Palestinians are denied access to electricity lines to light their homes, and barely enough solar panels and mini-refrigerators are confiscated.
Water scarcity and high price threaten to eliminate all forms of life in the northern Jordan Valley, especially with high temperatures (Al-Jazeera)
Children facing the flames of the sun and occupation
Aref Daraghmeh, a human rights defender and specialist in the northern Jordan Valley, said, "Israel has taken control of all pasture land in the northern Jordan Valley, depriving about 600 families in various areas of the Palestinian Valley of all basic infrastructure for living, providing about 38 settlements with water, electricity and cooling services, in addition to converting springs into recreational areas, which only settlers can enter."
Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Daraghmeh added, "The health situation is very dangerous in the Jordan Valley; children face high temperatures alone, wear wet clothes to relieve their heat, spray their bodies with water, and are deprived of the availability of cold water for drinking, for example."
Daraghmeh stressed that residents' tents are not suitable for living in such hot weather, as they are made of burlap and plastic, which does not resist heat and does not insulate it, but on the contrary absorbs it, making it more difficult to sit inside.
He pointed to the Israeli occupation policy of restricting the lives of citizens in the Jordan Valley with the aim of deporting them to increase control over land and confiscate it, as the occupation forces continuously confiscate water tankers used by residents to transport water from distant springs or even from villages adjacent to the valley, adding, "Then they ask their owners for a high fine to return it to them, all to deport citizens from here."
In addition to the difficult humanitarian situation that accompanies the significant rise in temperatures in this region, this leads to losses in the agricultural production of farmers here, which Daraghmeh explained by saying that "the production of palm fields, for example, varies from day to day depending on temperature changes, this wave affected the production of dates, and on crops that rely on daily irrigation such as vegetables."
Temperatures in the northern Jordan Valley have reached about 45 degrees Celsius, and the Palestinian Meteorological Department expects temperatures to rise again early next week to be about 6 degrees higher than their annual averages.
Constant torment
Inside his home in Humsa al-Fawqa, Mahmoud Bisharat, 40, struggles to entertain his children and prevent them from going outside, while his one-year-old child cries from the heat and thirst.
Mahmoud says he should prevent his four children from playing outside the home, because this means they suffer from heat stroke, which makes it difficult to transport them to any health center, as there are no nearby centers or even emergency doctors, adding that playing with water is for entertainment and cooling together, as there are no air conditioners here.
He added that the last time his daughter Lilas suffered heat stroke, she miraculously survived, after she was transferred to the health center, where she waited for four hours without a doctor coming to treat her, adding, "We transferred her to the city of Tubas after that, as doctors are not always available in remote areas here."
Mahmoud had a slightly better fortune than Yusuf Bisharat and the residents of Khirbet Makhoul, as he received four solar panels provided with external support, but the electricity supply from these panels is very weak, enough only to light the house and run one fan.
Behind Mahmoud's brick house since 1967, a tin barn was built, with 80 sheep, each of which needs 11 liters of water every morning.
"We need three glasses of water a day, I buy one cup for 3 shekels, not to mention the fare and the price of diesel. In fact, on a very hot day like today I need more than 22 cups, but I can't afford them because of the high cost."
He stressed that the Israeli occupation army always confiscates water tankers "to prevent us from drinking and deport us from here, the last time they confiscated the water tanker, and forced me to pay a fine of 3,<> shekels."
Mahmoud bemoans his condition and his sons here and the situation of the residents of the Jordan Valley in general, as life here - in his opinion - is a continuous torment, and Israeli laws are unjust and apply only to Palestinians, and the goal is clear to steal the entire Jordan Valley.