By Xinhua
Jerusalem : The human rights groups have condemned Israel for restricting electricity supply to the Gaza Strip, local daily Ha’aretz reported on its website Friday.
Human Rights Watch said Israel’s electricity cuts “amount to collective punishment of the civilian population, and violate Israel’s obligations under the laws of war”.
It noted that the cuts are affecting civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, water-pumping stations and sewage-treatment facilities.
For the first time the flow on one of the 10 high-tension wires into Gaza was cut by five percent Thursday, since the Israeli Supreme Court approved cuts in the supply of electricity to the Gaza Strip as a legitimate means of economic pressure, the report said.
During the first week, the supply will drop by one megawatt (MW) of the total of 124 MW Israel supplies to the Gaza Strip.
Eventually, Israel aims to lower the electricity supply to the Gaza Strip to a mere five percent of the original total.
Israel decided to start limiting its power supply to the Gaza Strip from Thursday night to increase pressure on the Palestinians in Gaza to stop the rocket fire against southern Israeli communities.
Israeli officials were quoted as saying that Thursday’s reduction in the supply of electricity marks the beginning of a process aimed at gradually deepening those cuts and reducing Gaza’s dependence on Israel.
The remarks made by the Israeli officials have come under fire from Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, who said the remarks are “a new peak of cynicism” and contradict the arguments made by Israel before its Supreme Court.
Israeli security sources described Thursday’s move as gradual and proportional, stressing that the defence establishment would keep its commitment to the Supreme Court not to undertake actions that would result in a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.