A United Nations report accuses Israeli settlers of using violence, threats, and fences to deny Palestinians access to water in the West Bank.

A survey by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs shows that settlers are in total control of more than half of the springs close to Israeli settlements.

Its report says Palestinian farmers are losing income because they cannot irrigate their land and water their livestock.

Israel has not responded to the report.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has criticized Israeli settlement expansion as a human rights challenge.

She has demanded the Israeli government investigate all incidents of violence against Palestinians.

She also criticized arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment of Palestinians by their own government, especially in Gaza, and called rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza “illegal and unjustifiable.”