According to residents at Su'fat refugee camp, the water was cut out on March 4. Many residents in the area are now buying bottled water to scratch out a living. The neighborhood has suffered from water shortages in the past, but residents say this year has been the worst.

Su'fat refugee camp has reportedly nearly 80,000 residents.

Israeli officials have failed to explain why water has been cut. The situation has worsened for areas like Su'fat since Israel built its separation wall in the area nearly a decade ago.

Israel began constructing the barrier in 2002 when the Palestinians had launched their second uprising.

Eighty-five percent of the wall would be inside the occupied West Bank.

In a non-binding decision in 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) underscored the illegality of parts of the barrier built inside the West Bank. However, Israel has refused to tear it down.

In April 2013, Palestinian media reported that Israeli authorities had totally halted the water flow to 10 villages located northwest of al-Quds.

A Palestinian NGO, Land Research Centre, also said in last April that Israeli settlers from the settlements of Yiztar and Baracha had been using water springs in the Palestinian residents of the Burin village in the northern West Bank city of Nablus in order to raise fish.

BA/BA