Well poisoning Well - poisoning is the act of malicious manipulation of potable water resources in order to cause illness or death , or to deny an opponent access to fresh water resources . Well poisoning has been historically documented as strategy during wartime since antiquity , and was used both offensively ( as a terror tactic to disrupt and depopulate a target area ) and defensively ( as a scorched earth tactic to deny an invading army sources of clean water ) . Rotting corpse s ( both animal and human ) thrown down wells were the most common implementation ; in one of the earliest examples of biological warfare , corpses known to have died from common transmissible disease s of the Pre - Modern era such as bubonic plague or tuberculosis were especially favored for well - poisoning . Additionally , well poisoning was one of the three gravest Antisemitic accusations made against Jews during this period ( the other two being host desecration and blood libel ) . Similar accusations were also made of Koreans living in Japan in the aftermath of the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake . In both cases the accusation was never substantiated , but did lead to widescale persecution and pogroms against the group so accused . History . In warfare . Well poisoning has been used as an important scorched earth tactic at least since ancient times . In 1462 , for example , Prince Vlad III the Impaler of Wallachia utilized this method to delay his pursuing Ottoman Turk adversaries . Whilst retreating through Turkish - controlled Bulgaria , across the Danube River and back to the capital of Wallachia that same year , Vlad ' s army employed the poisoning of wells and other sources of water , as well as other scorched earth tactics en route to his country on both sides of the Danube , meaning that he deliberately polluted the water supplies of his fellow Romanians even at the cost of their lives if it slowed down his Muslim foes . Nearly 500 years later during the Winter War , the Finns rendered wells unusable by planting animal carcasses or feces in them in order to passively combat invading Soviet forces . During the 20th century , the practice of poisoning wells has lost most of its potency and practicality against an organized force as modern military logistics ensure secure and decontaminated supplies and resources . Nevertheless German forces during First World War poisoned wells in France as part of Operation Albrich . A few religions have laws condemning such scorched earth tactics . Most notably Islam , in its scripture , dictates that water - bodies may not be poisoned even during a battle and enemies must be allowed access to water . Medieval accusations against Jews . Despite some vague understanding of how diseases could spread , the existence of viruses and bacteria was unknown in medieval times , and the outbreak of disease could not be scientifically explained . Any sudden deterioration of health was often blamed on poisoning . Europe was hit by several waves of Black Death ( often identified as bubonic plague ) throughout the late Middle Ages . Crowded cities were especially hard hit by the disease , with death tolls as high as 50 % of the population . In their distress , emotionally distraught survivors searched desperately for an explanation . The city - dwelling Jews of the Middle Ages , living in walled - up , segregated ghetto districts , aroused suspicion . An outbreak of plague thus became the trigger for Black Death persecutions , with hundreds of Jews burned at the stake , or rounded up in synagogues and private houses that were then set aflame . With the decline of plague in Europe , these accusations lessened , but the term " well - poisoning " remains a loaded one that continues to crop up even today among anti - Semites around the world . Walter Laqueur writes in his book " The Changing Face of Anti - Semitism : From Ancient Times to the Present Day " : There were no mass attacks against " Jewish poisoners " after the period of the Black Death , but the accusation became part and parcel of antisemitic dogma and language . It appeared again in early 1953 in the form of the " doctors ' plot " in Stalin ' s last days , when hundreds of Jewish physicians in the Soviet Union were arrested and some of them killed on the charge of having caused the death of prominent Communist leaders . . . Similar charges were made in the 1980s and 1990s in radical Arab nationalist and Muslim fundamentalist propaganda that accused the Jews of spreading AIDS and other infectious diseases . Contemporary accusations . In recent years , unconfirmed reports of well contamination by Israeli settlers in the West Bank have surfaced . Cases include that of rotting chicken carcases found in a well at At - tuwani near Hebron in 2004 , although suspected settlers blamed Arab infighting . In the following years , various NGOs reported similar occurrences , accusing settlers of deliberately contaminating cisterns . Accusations of well - poisoning have also been brought up against Serbs . Most notoriously , Serbs were accused of poisoning Kosovo Albanians . There are also accusations of well - poisoning as a part of the Srebrenica massacre . References . Contemporary accusations