25,000 lack water in Ramallah

Some 25,000 people in Ramallah and its environs are without water after pipe lines and electricity lines were ruptured by Israel Defense Forces tank movement in the city, according to Palestinian officials.

Meanwhile, the army is preventing Ramallah residents from burying their dead, and the Ramallah Hospital morgue, capable of storing 17 bodies, is overflowing, with 25 bodies awaiting burial as of last night, said hospital officials.

Most of the neighborhoods around Yasser Arafat's headquarters in mid-Ramallah have had their water and electricity cut after tank movements ruptured lines.

The IDF has begun allowing crews to make repairs, but that requires lengthy coordination efforts that must be renewed daily, and often the permission given by commanders does not reach the soldiers on the ground.

In addition to the tank movements, which broke electricity poles and water mains - as did several trenches across roads dug by IDF bulldozers throughout the city - electrical lines have been downed by direct fire and explosions. Many Ramallah neighborhoods are now being supplied with electricity through a single electrical main.