International groups warn of Gaza disaster

JERUSALEM: Israeli and international NGOs joined the UN on Wednesday in warning of a “total collapse” in Gaza if Israel goes ahead with plans to further cut power supplies to the enclave.

A joint statement of 16 groups, among them Israel’s B’Tselem, Peace Now and Rabbis for Human Rights along with Amnesty International, said they have asked Israel’s attorney general to intervene.

Gazans currently receive only three to four hours of mains electricity a day, delivered from the territory’s own power station and others in Israel and Egypt.

Senior Israeli ministers decided on Sunday to reduce the amount of electricity supplied to Gaza by between 45 and 60 minutes a day after Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas cut funding for it by his West Bankbased Palestinian Authority.

The move was widely seen as an attempt by the Palestinian leader to step up pressure on Hamas which runs the Gaza Strip.

“A group of civil society organisations... sent an urgent letter today to attorney general Avichai Mandelblit demanding that he advise the members of the security cabinet to immediately rescind (its) decision to reduce the supply of electricity sold and provided by Israel to the Gaza Strip,” the NGOs said in their statement.

They said further cuts would contravene a 2008 Israeli supreme court ruling that years of Israeli control over the strip had created near-total dependence on power supply from the Jewish state and it must therefore continue to provide sufficient electricity to meet humanitarian needs.

Amnesty warned in a separate statement of a “looming humanitarian catastrophe”.

It said additional reductions in power “will have a disastrous impact on Gaza’s battered infrastructure and cause a public health disaster.”

“The move will also endanger thousands of lives including those of hospital patients with chronic conditions or in intensive care, including babies on life support.”

The UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied territories, Robert Piper, warned that fresh cuts would be disastrous.

“A further increase in the length of blackouts is likely to lead to a total collapse of basic services, including critical functions in the health, water and sanitation sectors,” Piper said in a statement.

“The people in Gaza should not be held hostage to this longstanding internal Palestinian dispute.” — AFP