RAMALLAH/JERUSALEM, 25 October 2007 — Israeli officials prepared a plan yesterday to cut power supplies to the Gaza Strip in response to a surge in Palestinian cross-border rocket attacks. “We plan to dramatically reduce the two-thirds of power that is supplied by Israel, which will take several weeks,” Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai told Army Radio.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s security cabinet declared Gaza an “enemy entity” in September, three months after Hamas Islamists routed the rival Fatah faction for control of the coastal enclave, whose borders are controlled by Israel. The “enemy” designation was a green light for sanctions, although Israeli officials said legal experts would first be consulted on the humanitarian effects on Gaza’s 1.5 million people.
The United Nations has told Israel it must not inflict collective punishment by cutting vital supplies and services. Palestinian leaders argue that, despite Israel’s withdrawal of troops from Gaza in 2005, it remains an occupying power because it controls the frontiers and, as such, is obliged under international law to ensure the welfare of the population.
After Palestinian militants fired at least 16 short-range rockets on Tuesday, one of which hit an apartment building in Israel, an Israeli Defense Ministry panel met to finalize a proposal for cutting utilities to Gaza, officials said. The plan was to be presented to Defense Minister Ehud Barak today.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International said yesterday human rights violations in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have become widespread since fighting in June between the Palestinian factions saw Hamas seize control of Gaza.
Islamist Hamas and its secular rival Fatah each claims to represent the Palestinian national struggle, but their violent schism was widely seen as an unprecedented setback to hopes for a state in lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
In a 57-page report, Amnesty International noted that the June civil war in Gaza in which some 160 people were killed had led to the creation, effectively, of separate Palestinian administrations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank where political opponents have routinely been subject to abuse.
“Arbitrary detentions and torture or other ill treatment of detainees by Hamas forces are now widespread and the initial improvements in the security situation which followed Hamas’ takeover are fast being eroded,” it said. Amnesty further criticized Hamas for entrusting its gunmen, who were trained to fight Israel and led the bloody rout of Fatah forces from Gaza, with law-enforcement duties.
“It appears clear that perpetrators of human rights abuses continue to enjoy impunity,” the group said. Amnesty also accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah of abuses in the larger West Bank, where it retains control and has conducted round-ups of Hamas sympathizers. “Arbitrary detention of suspected Hamas supporters by Palestinian Authority security forces has become routine,” it said.
