A Palestinian shepherd watches over his sheep on the edge of the West Bank town of Beit Sahour near Bethlehem. (Luay Sababa, Maan Images)

Hard-hit by a severe three-year drought and tough restrictions on movement imposed by Israel, Palestinian shepherds are facing what some elders call their worst crisis in living memory.

"All we have left is hope," says Musa Abdullah Awad, a wizened 49-year-old herder as he looks down at the remaining water in his cistern, which he says is barely enough to keep his goats alive a little longer.

As far as the eye can see there is nothing but dust, rocks and grinding poverty.

With more than 100 goats, Awad is better off than many of his neighbours whose homes dot the Hebron Hills on the southern edge of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, one of the most drought-stricken areas in the region.

"These are people who are used to a tough life but they are now on the edge," says Helge Kvam of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which has been providing emergency relief to the herders.

Much of the region has been affected by a lack of rain in winter, the wet season, and Israel has announced restrictions on household water consumption as its reservoirs stand at a 10-year-low.

"The situation is bad, it is very bad. There is an acute water shortage in the country," Israeli water authority spokesman Uri Shor said recently.

In the Hebron Hills, the crisis caused by three successive years of drought has been compounded by Israeli-imposed restrictions that have sharply reduced grazing areas and access to water.

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"They used to take their animals to graze all across the West Bank, and even into Jordan," says Mohammad Sheikh Ali, an economic security expert with the ICRC. "Now the grazing range is just a few kilometres," he says, pointing to the bone-dry hills.

The patchwork of Israeli settlements, military zones and barriers that truncate the West Bank, as well as a strict permit system in areas under full Israeli control, prevent herds from reaching grazing areas and makes access to water difficult, according to humanitarian organisations.

About 10 kilometres from Awad's house, an Israeli settlement closed off to Palestinians prevents direct access to Yatta, the nearest town, where water tankers fill up.

To get to Yatta, local herders must make a long detour, partly along treacherous dirt roads which the Israeli army regularly blocks with earth mounds aimed at preventing Palestinians from illegally entering nearby Israel.

The arid hills around Awad's home in the poor village of Isfey Foqa have been designated a "closed military area" by Israel.

To read the full article please visit The Jordan Times.