TEL AVIV (AP) – Israel cut off the electricity supply to Gaza, officials said, affecting a desalination plant producing drinking water for part of the arid territory. Hamas called it part of Israel’s “starvation policy”.
Israel last week suspended supplies of goods to the territory of more than two million Palestinians, an echo of the siege it imposed in the earliest days of the war.
Israel is pressing the group to accept an extension of the first phase of their ceasefire. That phase ended last weekend.
Israel wants Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for a promise to negotiate a lasting truce.
Hamas instead wants to start negotiations on the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, which would see the release of remaining hostages from Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and a lasting peace. Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35 others. The group – which has warned that discontinuing supplies would affect the hostages – said on Sunday that it wrapped up the latest round of ceasefire talks with Egyptian mediators without changes to its position.
Israel said it sent a delegation to Qatar yesterday in an effort to “advance” the negotiations.
Israel had warned when it stopped all supplies that water and electricity could be next. The letter from Israel’s energy minister to the Israel Electric Corporation tells it to stop selling power to Gaza.
The territory and its infrastructure have been largely devastated, and most facilities, including hospitals, now use generators. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassam said that Israel has “practically” cut off electricity since the war began and called the latest decision part of Israel’s “starvation policy, in clear disregard for all international laws and norms”.
The desalination plant was providing 18,000 cubic metres (m3)of water per day for central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah area, according to Gisha, an Israeli organisation dedicated to protecting Palestinians’ right to freedom of movement. Executive Director Tania Hary said that it’s expected to run on generators and produce around 2,500m3 per day, about the amount in an Olympic swimming pool.
Israel’s restrictions on fuel entering Gaza have a larger impact, Hary said, and water shortages are a looming issue, because fuel is needed for distribution trucks.
Israel has faced sharp criticism over suspending supplies.
“Any denial of the entry of the necessities of life for civilians may amount to collective punishment,” the United Nations (UN) human rights office said on Friday.
The International Criminal Court said there was reason to believe Israel had used “starvation as a method of warfare” when it issued an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year. The allegation is central to South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide.
Israel denied the accusations, saying it has allowed in enough aid and blaming shortages on what it called the UN’s inability to distribute it. It also accused Hamas of siphoning off aid.
The leader of the rebels in Yemen Abdul Malik al-Houthi warned last Friday that attacks against Israel-linked vessels off Yemen would resume within four days if aid doesn’t resume to Gaza. The Houthis described their earlier attacks as solidarity with Palestinians there.
