Municipal authorities in Gaza warned today of health and environmental disasters due to Israel’s ongoing cut of electricity and water supplies to the enclave. The Union of Gaza Municipalities said that the power cut by Israel has caused the main water desalination plant in the territory to shut down.
“These punitive policies against Palestinians in Gaza are a violation of international law and exacerbate the suffering of the population, who are facing a major humanitarian crisis,” added the union.
Israel cut off the electricity supply to Gaza on Sunday, in the latest move to tighten a stifling blockade on the Palestinian enclave despite a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement being in force. UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese denounced the Israeli move as a “genocide alert”, saying that without electricity, there is no clean water.
It followed another Israeli decision to stop humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, prompting warnings from local and human rights groups of a return to widespread hunger for the Palestinian population.
The union appealed to the international community and humanitarian organisations to ” intervene immediately to secure essential supplies and guarantee the entry of essential materials… to avoid further health and environmental disasters.”
On Tuesday, Mohammad Thabet, a spokesman of the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company, said that Israel had provided the enclave with only five megawatts of electricity since last November before its decision to cut off power to the enclave.
More than 48,500 people have been killed, mostly women and children, in a brutal Israeli war on Gaza since October 2023. The onslaught was paused under the ceasefire and prisoner swap deal, which took effect in January.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
READ: Despite ceasefire, 7 more Gazans killed by Israel as death toll reaches 48,515