“Ceasefire Israeli-style” — the act of collective punishment comes as negotiators are meeting in Qatar over the terms of the second phase of the ceasefire deal.
Israel’s Energy Minister Eli Cohen. (Ofir Abe, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
By Jessica Corbett
Common Dreams
Outrage over the Israeli government’s decision to cut off electricity to a water treatment plant in the decimated Gaza Strip mounted on Monday.
As Common Dreams reported Sunday, Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said that he “signed an order for the immediate halt of electricity to the Gaza Strip” as part of a policy to use “all of the tools that are at our disposal to ensure the return of all the hostages” taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
The Times of Israel noted that the new move by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “was mainly expected to affect a single desalination plant, the only facility in the strip still running on a power line supplied from Israel.”
Responding on social media Monday, the Peace & Justice Project —founded by Jeremy Corbyn, an Independent member of the U.K. Parliament — condemned the cutoff as Israel’s “latest act of genocidal collective punishment against the Palestinian people.”
“This latest despicable act must be condemned by all governments and Israel must be sanctioned,” the group added.
Also speaking out on social media, Francesca Albanese, United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, declared, “GENOCIDE ALERT!”
“Israel cutting off electricity supplies to Gaza means, among others, no functioning desalination stations, ergo: no clean water,” Albanese said. “STILL NO SANCTION/NO ARMS EMBARGO against Israel means, among others, AIDING AND ASSISTING Israel in the commission of one of the most preventable genocides of our history.”
Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, called the move “a desperate attempt to pressure our people and their resistance through cheap and unacceptable blackmail tactics,” according to The Times of Israel.
He tied the decision to Israel halting all humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave last week, saying that “we strongly condemn the occupation’s decision to cut off electricity to Gaza, after depriving it of food, medicine, and water.”
Clean water has been a key issue in Gaza since October 2023. Oxfam said last July that Israel had systematically reduced the water available by 94 percent, with just 4.74 liters per resident obtainable each day — less than a third of the recommended minimum amount in emergencies.
A Human Rights Watch report from December accuses Israel of “extermination and acts of genocide” in Gaza “by intentionally depriving Palestinian civilians there of adequate access to water, most likely resulting in thousands of deaths.”
Netanyahu said that last week’s block on aid was done “in full coordination” with U.S. President Donald Trump, who proposed an American takeover of Gaza — a plan that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Sunday “is taking shape.”
Trump with Netanyahu at the White House on Feb. 4. (C-Span)
Israel and Hamas reached a fragile three-part cease-fire and hostage-release deal in January. Stage one expired on March 1, and negotiators have not yet agreed to terms for the second phase, but talks are being held in Qatar this week.
“Food cut off, almost all electricity cut off, with the remaining energy now cut off too, in order to cut off water supply. This is a ‘cease-fire’ Israel-style,” said Nick Dearden, director of the U.K.-based group Global Justice Now. “Barbaric collective punishment. Stop all weapons, suspend trade deals, economic sanctions now.”
University of Michigan professor Juan Cole wrote Monday on his website, Informed Comment, that “the Israeli government is cutting Palestinian civilians in Gaza off from staples as a means of pressuring Hamas to release all Israeli hostages with no quid pro quo so that Netanyahu can start bombing again.”
“This collective punishment of civilians violates the Geneva Convention and other elements of internationally agreed on laws of war to which Israel is signatory,” noted Cole. “It also violates the preliminary injunction of the International Court of Justice, in which Israel also has membership.”
Israel faces an ongoing genocide case at the Hague-based court over its deadly blockade and assault of Gaza — assisted by billions of dollars in U.S. weapons. Like his predecessor, Trump’s administration is working to send even more arms to Israel.
“Cutting off humanitarian aid to millions of civilians is a war crime. That is exactly what the extremist Netanyahu government is doing now to Palestinians in Gaza,” U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Monday. “I’ve introduced resolutions to block billions in offensive arms sales to Israel and will demand votes on these bills.”
Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.
This article is from Common Dreams.
Views expressed in this article and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
Love **GENOCIDE ALERT** from the UN. What’s their budget?
$4 Billion+
No doubt Palestinians are elated at all the UN and the ICC and the ICJ’s effective actions to date. Really worth all those six figure salaries and humanitarian fronts.
Ah, now that they got rid of Genocide Joe, all the fake-humanitarians in the Democrat stable can come out and criticize Gaza policy because now it can be an anti-Trump message. Look at all the fakes join in … Prof. Cole …. Senator, or should I say Colonel Sanders. Suddenly one of the Defense Industry’s favorite Senators is now opposed to the policy that he quietly supported for the last year and a half.
(Note, according to OpenSecrets dot Org, Sen. Sanders got a surprisingly high amount of ‘defense’ contributions in 2016, and in 2020 was the Defense Industries favorite Senator raking in more bribes/contributions than any other Senator. Although, iirc, Sen. Warren made the top 5).
correction … “cease-fire American style”.
When The Free World agrees to a cease-fire, the firing does not cease. Where Clauswitz referred to war as being politics by other means, the modern Free World views a cease-fire as war by other means. When the Free World agrees to a cease-fire, it does not mean peace. It does not even mean silence from explosions. It simply means that the Free World is going to come to kill you and dominate you by other means than the open warfare at which you just defeated them.
To make the point that this does not apply only to Israel, see the Minsk Agreements and Russia and Donbas. Or perhaps, review the ‘solution’ which America now always wants to apply to its losing conflicts which is some sort of “frozen” conflict where the hostilities still persists decades later as in South Korea. What The Free World apparently views as perfection. A conflict that never ends and thus profits permanent profits and growth opportunities for the Merchants of Death.
This is an American problem, and it is not just seen in Israel.
Excellent comment. Washington excels at punking those who are not wise to its willingness to play as dirty as it can get away with. It’s become an art form. Nothing Washington and its NATO vassals say or do can be trusted. Nothing.