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href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-using-electricity-blackmail-gaza">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-using-electricity-blackmail-gaza</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Israel using electricity to blackmail Gaza</h1>
<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah">Ali
Abunimah</a></span> <span class="field field-blog">- </span><span
class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2018-01-09T23:27:22+00:00">9 January 2018</span></span>
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<p>Israel has restored supplies of electricity it sells
to the Gaza Strip which it cut in June, exacerbating a
humanitarian crisis.</p>
<p>But it is openly blackmailing residents of the
besieged territory, which still receives far less
electricity than it needs, including to run <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/power-cuts-put-lives-gaza-kidney-patients-danger">life-saving
medical services</a> and <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/life-septic-tank/20826">sanitation</a>.</p>
<p>Israel says Gaza won’t get more power without
progress on the release of Israelis detained in Gaza –
a use of basic humanitarian needs as bargaining chips
in gross violation of international law.</p>
<p>On Monday, Israel began supplying 120 megawatts to
Gaza, which means that Gaza’s two million residents
may now receive up to six hours of electricity per
day, followed by an outage of 12 hours.</p>
<p>This came after the Ramallah-based Palestinian
Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas <a
href="http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=VNgm4ea95898632280aVNgm4e">asked
Israel to restore the supply</a> amid a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/omar-karmi/old-headaches-new-reconciliation-deal">faltering
reconciliation deal</a> with rival Hamas, which has
ruled in Gaza over the last decade.</p>
<p>Five of The Electronic Intifada’s contributors in
different parts of Gaza said they had noticed slight
to modest improvements in the situation since Monday.</p>
<p><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/rami-almeghari">Rami
Almeghari</a>, who lives in central Gaza’s Maghazi
refugee camp, said that the connection time had risen
to six to eight hours, compared with two to four
previously.</p>
<p><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/hamza-abu-eltarabesh">Hamza
Abu Eltarabesh</a>, who lives in western Gaza City,
observed, “The change is very slight. In fact we
didn’t feel it.”</p>
<h2>Punitive cuts</h2>
<p>Any increase marks an improvement only by the dire
standards of Gaza.</p>
<p>“Even under ‘ordinary’ conditions, for years the
amount of electricity available to Gaza residents has
only met about half of actual demand,” <a
href="http://gisha.org/updates/8480">according to
Gisha</a>, an Israeli human rights group that
monitors the siege of Gaza.</p>
<p>Gisha notes that Gaza’s sole power plant relies on
fuel purchased from either Israel or Egypt and that
additional electricity supplied over lines from Egypt
“has been sporadic due to unstable security conditions
in the region.”</p>
<p>That “ordinary” situation got considerably worse last
year, after Abbas and Israel implemented a series of
punitive measures aimed at forcing Hamas to give up
power in Gaza.</p>
<p>In mid-April Gaza’s power plant <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/power-crisis-hits-gaza-hospitals-israel-tightens-siege-sick">stopped
functioning</a> after emergency fuel supplies funded
by Turkey and Qatar ran out and a dispute over charges
between the PA and Hamas meant that no more fuel was
being purchased.</p>
<p>Within weeks, the Red Cross <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/gaza-brink-systemic-collapse-icrc-warns">warned</a>
that Gaza’s health system was on the brink of
“systemic collapse.”</p>
<p>In June, Israel tightened the noose by sharply
cutting the electricity it supplies to Gaza <a
href="http://www.gedco.ps/posts/details/5242">at the
request of Abbas’ authority</a> from 120 megawatts
to just 70.</p>
<h2>Health “catastrophe”</h2>
<p>By July, Gaza’s electricity supply <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/gazas-electricity-supply-hits-all-time-low">plunged
to an all-time low</a> – just 90 megawatts of the
estimated 400-500 it needs daily – and a month later
hospitals were <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/video-gaza-hospitals-warn-catastrophe/21546">warning</a>
of “catastrophe.”</p>
<p>Hospitals <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/surgeries-cut-one-third-gazas-main-hospital/20601">postponed
surgeries</a> because they could not keep the power
on long enough to run life support equipment.</p>
<p>Rights groups said that even if the cuts had been
requested by the PA, Israel, as the occupying power,
could not wash its hands of the situation.</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,” Human Rights Watch’s Omar Shakir <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/israel-implements-illegal-cuts-gazas-power-supply">stated</a>.</p>
<p>Sixteen human rights organizations wrote to Israel’s
attorney general <a
href="http://gisha.org/press/7830">denouncing the
cuts</a> as a clear violation of international
humanitarian law.</p>
<h2>Blackmail</h2>
<p>Given the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/eu-washes-its-hands-gaza">silence
and complicity of the so-called international
community</a> when Israel implemented the cuts in
June, it is no surprise now that Israel – assured of
impunity – continues to violate its legal
responsibilities.</p>
<p><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/cogat">COGAT</a>
– the bureaucratic enforcement arm of Israel’s
military occupation, which <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/heartwarming-or-heartless-israeli-propaganda-vs-reality">tries
to brand itself</a> as a “humanitarian” body – is
attempting to blackmail the civilian population in
Gaza over further electricity supplies.</p>
<p>In a <a
href="http://www.cogat.mod.gov.il/en/Our_Activities/Pages/Electric-supply-to-Gaza-8.1.17.aspx">statement</a>
Monday, COGAT said Israel had agreed to restore the
120 megawatts it was supplying before June, which the
PA would have to pay for, but that “humanitarian
issues are not one sided.”</p>
<p>COGAT said that Israel would not consider selling an
additional 100 megawatts “before humanitarian issues
such as the return of the bodies of Hadar Goldin and
Oron Shaul and the return of additional Israeli
citizens held in Gaza are discussed.”</p>
<p>Israel’s attempt to use electricity as a negotiating
chip for <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israel-uses-fighters-trapped-gaza-tunnel-bargaining-chips">Israelis
detained in Gaza</a> is a blatant violation of its <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/un-blames-palestinians-electricity-crisis-israel-caused-gaza">legal
obligations as an occupying power</a>.</p>
<p>The Fourth Geneva Convention <a
href="https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/ihl/385ec082b509e76c41256739003e636d/6756482d86146898c125641e004aa3c5">requires</a>
Israel to use “the fullest extent of the means
available to it” to ensure supplies of food and
medical services, and to maintain public health and
hygiene in the occupied territory. These are services
for which an adequate supply of electricity is
absolutely essential.</p>
<p>Such blackmail could violate the Fourth Geneva
Convention’s <a
href="https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/ihl/WebART/380-600038">prohibition
on collective punishment</a> and the prohibition in
international law on <a
href="https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_rul_rule53">siege
warfare</a> against a civilian population.</p>
<p>The International Committee of the Red Cross already
<a
href="https://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/update/palestine-update-140610.htm">stated
in 2010</a> that Israel’s blockade of Gaza that
began a decade ago “constitutes a collective
punishment imposed in clear violation of Israel’s
obligations under international humanitarian law” and
that the “whole of Gaza’s civilian population is being
punished for acts for which they bear no
responsibility.”</p>
<h2>Sheer hypocrisy</h2>
<p>The family of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/hadar-goldin">Hadar
Goldin</a>, an Israeli occupation soldier who went
missing during Israel’s 2014 invasion of Gaza, <a
href="https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5067645,00.html">slammed
the Israeli government</a> for increasing the
electricity supply to Gaza at all. The family remains
determined that two million people – half of them
children – should be made to suffer until they learn
news of their son’s fate.</p>
<p>Following Goldin’s disappearance, the Israeli army <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/israel-used-disappearance-soldier-pretext-killing-spree-rights-group">went
on a three-day killing spree</a> in Gaza that left
225 Palestinians dead and thousands of homes damaged
or destroyed.</p>
<p>COGAT even <a
href="http://www.cogat.mod.gov.il/en/Our_Activities/Pages/Electric-supply-to-Gaza-8.1.17.aspx">supplied
a quote</a> from Leah Goldin, the missing soldier’s
mother, stating that “every mother wants to visit her
son’s grave and the inability to return Hadar Goldin
for his burial is considered a crime in Islam.”</p>
<p>Neither she nor Israeli occupation officials at COGAT
noted the irony – not to say the sheer hypocrisy of
such a statement – given that Israel systematically
withholds the bodies of Palestinians killed by its
forces, often in <a
href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/8765">suspected
extrajudicial executions</a>, a policy that human
rights defenders denounce as a “severe violation of
international law.”</p>
<p>Israel has <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/mother-waits-36-years-israel-return-sons-body/14969">withheld
some bodies for decades</a>, burying them in its
so-called “cemetery of numbers” where families cannot
visit to mourn their loved ones.</p>
<p>In November, Israel seized the bodies of five
fighters from the resistance group Islamic Jihad
killed in the detonation of a tunnel along the
Gaza-Israel boundary.</p>
<p>According to human rights defenders, Israel is <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israel-uses-fighters-trapped-gaza-tunnel-bargaining-chips">illegally
using the bodies as bargaining chips</a>.</p>
<p>While Palestinians in Gaza will welcome any easing of
the electricity siege, the situation remains dire
despite Monday’s increase in supply.</p>
<p>As 2018 started, the World Health Organization <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jan/03/gaza-health-system-collapse-electricity-crisis-threatens-total-blackout">said</a>
that Gaza’s health system remained “on the edge of
collapse.”</p>
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