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dir="ltr"> <font size="-2"><a id="reader-domain" class="domain"
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/israel-implements-illegal-cuts-gazas-power-supply">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/israel-implements-illegal-cuts-gazas-power-supply</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Israel implements illegal cuts to Gaza's
power supply</h1>
<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/charlotte-silver">Charlotte
Silver</a></span> <span class="field field-blog"></span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2017-06-19T22:08:14+00:00">19 June 2017</span></span>
</p>
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<figure id="file-48286" class="media
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<p>Israel reduced its supply of electricity to the
occupied Gaza Strip on Monday morning, in spite of
warnings from human rights groups that the move violates
international law.</p>
<p>The cuts come despite <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/gaza-brink-systemic-collapse-icrc-warns">dire</a>
<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/catastrophe-looms-gaza">warnings</a>
in recent weeks from the International Committee of the
Red Cross, the World Health Organization and UN
officials that the induced electricity shortage is
causing a humanitarian catastrophe, as essential health,
water and sanitation facilities cannot function.</p>
<p>In mid-May, the ICRC declared that Gaza was on the
brink of “systemic collapse.”</p>
<p>Israel plans to eventually reduce its electricity
supply to Gaza by 40 percent, according to a plan <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/catastrophe-looms-gaza">approved</a>
by its cabinet earlier this month.</p>
<p>On Monday, Israel reduced the power supply by about
seven percent, which will result in <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/1.796645">45
minutes less</a> electricity to Gaza households.</p>
<p>Electricity for most of the two million Palestinians in
Gaza is already available for no more than about three
or four hours each day.</p>
<p>If the Israeli cuts are fully implemented, Gaza’s
population will be left with just two hours of
electricity a day.</p>
<p>The cabinet approved the cuts in response to the
Palestinian Authority informing Israel that it will pay
only 60 percent of Gaza’s monthly electricity bill from
Israel.</p>
<p>Israeli Prime Minister <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/benjamin-netanyahu">Benjamin
Netanyahu</a> and defense minister <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/avigdor-lieberman">Avigdor
Lieberman</a> have maintained that Gaza’s severe
electricity shortage is strictly a matter for
Palestinians.</p>
<p>“This is an [internal] Palestinian crisis,” Lieberman
said. “Those who need to pay for electricity are the
leaders of Hamas, of the Palestinian Authority – we are
not a party in this.”</p>
<p>Echoing the Israeli government’s claims, UN
humanitarian coordinator Robert Piper last week <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/un-blames-palestinians-electricity-crisis-israel-caused-gaza">said</a>
Gaza’s electricity crisis is the result of a
“longstanding internal Palestinian dispute.”</p>
<p>Piper warned, however, that further reductions would be
“catastrophic.”</p>
<h2>Israel is responsible</h2>
<p>But human rights groups reject Israel’s effort to wash
its hands of Gaza, insisting that Israel is obliged to
maintain the electricity supply regardless of payment.</p>
<p>Human Rights Watch’s director for the region Omar
Shakir <a
href="https://www.algemeiner.com/2017/04/27/human-rights-group-israel-bears-ultimate-responsibility-for-gaza-electricity-supply-as-crisis-looms/">told
the right-wing pro-Israel publication <em>Algemeiner</em></a>
that because Israel is “legally the occupying power,” it
must refuse the PA’s request to cut Gaza’s electricity.</p>
<p>“Israel controls the borders, the airspace, the waters
of Gaza, so Israel has an obligation that goes beyond
merely responding to a request from Palestinian
authorities,” Shakir said.</p>
<p>The UN, the ICRC, the United States and the European
Union <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/how-israel-sabotages-war-crimes-investigations-gaza">all
maintain</a> that under international law Israel
remains the occupying power in Gaza, despite Israel’s
withdrawal of its soldiers and settlers from the
interior of the territory in 2005.</p>
<p>“As the occupying power, Israel has obligations to
ensure the basic needs of the civilian population are
met,” Magdalena Mughrabi, Amnesty International’s deputy
director for the Middle East and North Africa, <a
href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/06/gaza-looming-humanitarian-catastrophe-highlights-need-to-lift-israels-10-year-illegal-blockade/">said
last week</a>.</p>
<p>“The Israeli authorities must immediately lift the
illegal blockade and end their collective punishment of
Gaza’s population,” Mughrabi added.</p>
<p>The spokesperson for the European Union’s foreign
affairs chief Federica Mogherini did not respond to a
request for comment about the deteriorating situation in
Gaza.</p>
<h2>Illegal</h2>
<p>In a <a href="http://gisha.org/press/7830">letter</a>
to Israel’s attorney general last week, 16 Israeli
organizations said that the decision to cut the
electricity clearly violates international humanitarian
law.</p>
<p>Gisha, a group that monitors the blockade of Gaza, said
the letter emphasizes “the illegality of the cabinet’s
decision under both Israeli and international law.”</p>
<p>In 2008, the Israeli high court ruled that Israel could
minimally reduce the supply of electricity to Gaza for
“security” needs. But Israel is not claiming security as
a factor now.</p>
<p>The ruling was <a
href="http://www.btselem.org/gaza_strip/20080208_hcj_approves_sanctions_on_gaza">denounced</a>
by human rights groups at the time, but the 16
organizations reminded the attorney general that even
the 2008 ruling acknowledges that Gaza is “almost
totally dependent on Israel for its supply of
electricity,” and that Israel has a “humanitarian
obligation” to prevent “harm to the civilian
population.”</p>
<p>The 2008 ruling had allowed Israel to reduce its
electricity supply by just five percent but required
Israel to continue to supply Gaza with enough fuel to
operate its power station.</p>
<p>Today, Gaza is even more dependent on Israel for its
electricity than it was in 2008. Gaza’s sole power plant
no longer operates at all.</p>
<p>The power plant has <a
href="http://gisha.org/gazzamap/395">not operated at
full capacity</a> since 2009, when Israel stopped
allowing the “humanitarian minimum” of diesel fuel to
enter Gaza.</p>
<p>It completely <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/power-crisis-hits-gaza-hospitals-israel-tightens-siege-sick">shut
down in April</a> after it ran out of emergency fuel
supplies paid for by Qatar and Turkey.</p>
<p>While the electricity crisis imposes <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/photos-gaza-left-suffer-dark/20736">severe
hardships</a> on daily life, it is catastrophic for
hospitals, which lack sufficient backup capacity and are
already <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/surgeries-cut-one-third-gazas-main-hospital/20601">canceling
critical surgeries</a> and shutting down entire wings.</p>
<p>A generator powering an intensive care unit at a
children’s hospital <a
href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-19/gaza-strip-electricity-cut-in-hamas-and-fatah-dispute/8629036">stopped
working three weeks ago</a> because it was overloaded.</p>
<p>Gaza’s health ministry is <a
href="http://pchrgaza.org/en/?p=9186">warning</a> that
more than 50 operating rooms that perform around 250
surgeries each day may be closed unless Israel fulfills
its obligation to guarantee basic services to the
population, including fuel to operate Gaza’s power
plant.</p>
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