Gaza power to be cut over rocket attacks

TEL AVIV — Israel is preparing to cut electricity it supplies to the Gaza Strip in retaliation for cross-border rocket fire, tightening the vise on the Hamas-controlled territory’s blighted economy.

Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai disclosed plans yesterday to reduce power supplies to Gaza by two-thirds in the coming weeks, implementing a government decision last month to treat the tiny coastal strip as an enemy entity.

“The recommendation is to start disconnecting gradually, without causing harm to anything that could create a humanitarian problem, like hospitals,” Mr. Vilnai told Israel Army Radio.

Since Hamas’ violent takeover in June, Israel has blocked Gaza’s commercial imports and exports. Only goods designated for humanitarian needs — food, medicine and fuel — have entered the territory in the past four months.

A lone shipment of about seven truckloads of potatoes counts as Gaza’s only export.

The closure policy has led to widespread shortages of health supplies and the most ubiquitous food retail products. Coca-Cola has disappeared from grocery shelves entirely and hospitals lack anesthetics for surgery.

Gaza gunrunners have begun smuggling cheese, fish and other food through tunnels from Egypt.

In a territory where about 80 percent live under the poverty line, about 70,000 jobs were lost because of the economic sanctions since Hamas rose to power.

A shortage of cement has stymied about 95 percent of the Gaza’s construction projects while about 85 percent of private businesses are closed or operating at reduced levels, according to U.N. figures.

Israeli security chiefs and politicians are discussing cutting power in the evenings to Beit Hanoun, a border town near Israel where many of the rockets are launched, the Ha’aretz newspaper reported.

“It”s a continuation of a declared policy of collective punishment which is illegal and unhelpful,” said Sari Bashi, the director of the Tel Aviv-based human rights group Gisha.

“International law prohibits firing Qassam rockets on civilian targets in Israeli towns, and it also prohibits depriving 1.4 million men, women and children of electricity, fuel and the basic goods necessary to engage in dignified work.”

The move is part of an Israeli policy to use its economic leverage to pressure the Hamas government to stop the rocket fire, or face growing unrest among Gazans.

Israel supplies a majority of Gaza’s electricity. The Ha’aretz report said Israel also is considering reducing fuel shipments.

In the past week, there has been a spike in violence in Gaza. Hamas gunmen have waged separate clashes with the Islamic Jihad fighters for control of a mosque and with gunmen from the Fatah-allied Hillis clan in Gaza City.

Story Continues →