Israel’s military conflict with Syria, Lebanon and Palestine are about the 21st century’s most sought-after resource:

Freshwater.

🔍 Golan Heights

👉 There since 1967, annexed in 1981, the Golan supplies over a third of Israel’s freshwater. Snowmelt, rainwater and local streams feed into the Sea of Galilee—a critical reservoir.

👉 The collapse of the Syrian government in late 2024 led Israel to tighten its grip over the region, capturing the Al-Mantara Dam in Quneitra province and restricting water flow to nearby Syrian villages.

📍 Southern Lebanon

♦️ Subject to Israeli occupation going back to the 1970s fighting the PLO and Hezbollah, southern Lebanon’s less discussed strategic prize is freshwater – a lot of it.

♦️ Major river networks include the Litani, Hasbani and Zahrani, with the Litani in particular greedily eyed by Arab countries and Israeli officials going back the country’s founding, and growing in value over time as traditional aquifers dry up, rainfall falls and becomes more unpredictable, and droughts hit farming.

♦️ Israel demonstrably targets Lebanon’s water-related infrastructure in wars (2006, 2023-2024). In April, Defense Minister Katz announced that troops would remain in their new Lebanese buffer zone areas “indefinitely.”

📍 West Bank & Gaza

🔴 Israel has controlled the West Bank’s aquifers since 1967, allocating 80% of water resources to Israeli settlers (300 l/day per capita), with Palestinians granted 70 l/day per capita.

🔴 In Gaza, war against Hams and other terrorist cells, ~90% of the strip’s water infrastructure, including desalination plants.

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