Gaza is being strangled by the siege *)
On 19 September, the Israeli government declared the Gaza Strip a “hostile entity,” and decided to gradually cut off fuel and electricity supplies. Without electricity to supply the pumps, the people of Gaza won’t have drinking water or be able to eliminate sewage.
The only power station in Gaza was destroyed last year by Israeli bombing and still cannot provide for the most basic needs.
The Israeli army’s complete control over the goods that enter and leave the Gaza Strip prevents the import of the fuel necessary for cooking and other needs. The people of Gaza are completely at the mercy of the Israeli army.
“Most of the time we do not have regular power supply or sufficient water. The occupation decideswhat we should eat and what we should not, what we should wear and what we should not. They interfere in the very tiny details of our daily life, by imposing so many rules.
Every day patients are prevented from leaving Gaza for further treatment abroad. Dozens of essential medications are missing from hospital shelves. 85% of the population depend on international aid agencies for food. Essential foods for a balanced diet, like meat, vegetables, fruit, milk are missing. We have become a small piece of news not enough to disturb the world’s sleeping conscience. “
Dr Mona El-Farra. Vice President of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Gaza.
The denial of water and electricity to civilians is a form of collective punishment and is illegal under international humanitarian law. International law also specifically forbids using the deprivation of civilians as a weapon:
Geneva Conventions: Additional Protocol II, Article 14.
Starvation of civilians as a method of combat is prohibited. It is therefore prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless for that purpose, objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population such as food-stuffs, agricultural areas for the production of food-stuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works
Once again the 1.5 million women, men, and children are the targets of a vicious and illegal policy of collective punishment that cannot be justified by “security” concerns and can never bring peace.
Silence Makes Us Complicit
*) Translation of a flyer from "Donne in Nero" - Rome