Human Rights and Democracy Media Center- SHAMS, warns that disconnecting electricity in the Gaza Strip during the current aggression and banning fuel entry, are among the tools utilized by the Israeli occupation to murder more and more civilians. Patients with chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiac disease, renal dialysis, premature babies, and patients in the Intensive Care Units, are the most affected by the crimes of the occupation. Additionally, the injured, mainly children who lost some or all their limbs and those who suffered burns, as a result of the Israeli shelling, are also at risk as a result of the electricity disconnection. Injured who are in need of urgent surgery are not receiving any medical intervention due to the disconnection of electricity, which stands as a risk to their life. In addition to that, disconnecting electricity will lead to the corruption of some medicine, which needs low storage temperature. Denying fuel supplies, mainly to the hospitals, would lead to a human disaster and the death of hundreds of injured, especially since the number of persons wounded due to the Israeli aggression, approached around 20 thousand persons (males, females, and children). The statement of the Israeli War (Defense) Minister was meant literary when he declared: No Water, No Electricity, No Food, and No Fuel. The Minister was serious in his statement as the purpose was to destroy life in the Gaza Strip. Disconnecting electricity and denying the entry of fuel, means that life in the sieged Gaza Strip is paralyzed. Such a situation in the Gaza Strip is accompanied by heavy shelling and bombing using internationally prohibited lethal, based on the instructions of the given Occupation Minister.
SHAMS Center affirms that disconnecting electricity and denying the entry of fuel, are forms of collective punishment against Palestinians that lead to blocking life in the entire Gaza Strip. The Israeli policies blocked the functioning of the hospitals and paramedical teams as well as the teams of civil defense and consequently, martyrs and injured persons are left under the rubble. The daily life in the Gaza Strip is entirely paralyzed. Shelling the Gaza Strip with tons of explosive materials and missiles indicates clearly that the Israeli government is proceeding with its predetermined policy to destroy the lives of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli forces are targeting hospitals, schools, universities, houses, worship houses, bakeries, shops, public facilities, and other civic establishments. Patients are left alone to die inside the hospitals with the inability of the medical crews to provide any kind of support.
SHAMS Center affirmsthat the horrible aggression of the Israeli occupation was not possible without the granted green light and the endless support of the USA and some European colonialism countries. These countries are partners in the aggression against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and murdering patients, women, and children. The Israeli occupation bans fuel entry to the Gaza Strip to operate the Electricity Station that needs 600 liters of fuel daily in order to supply the minimum electricity required to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Electricity is needed to operate bakeries and water desalination plants. Within the disabling, the underground water bumps, then without the desalination plants, Gaza is out of drinkable water. Additionally, according to the reports of specialized international organizations, including the World Health Organization, the underground water in the Gaza Strip is salty and polluted.
SHAMS Center affirms that the practices of the Israeli occupation are nothing but collective punishments against civilians. Both the International Law and International Human Rights Law, prohibit collective punishment. According to the International Law, the Israeli practices are war crimes and crimes against humanity. Additionally, these practices are ethnic cleansing crimes according to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948. Article 2 of the Convention states: “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”, is a genocide crime. On a related level, Article 33 of the Geneva Fourth Convention states: “No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited”. Such an Article indicates clearly that collective punishments are prohibited according to the Geneva Fourth Convention. According to the Rome Statute- 1998, violating the Geneva Fourth Convention is a War Crime that should be addressed by the ICC.
SHAMS Center urges the United Nations and its specialized agencies, international non-governmental organizations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights in the OPT to take serious and impactful action to exert pressure on the Israeli occupying government to allow the entry of fuel into the Gaza Strip and restore its electricity supply. Furthermore, SHAMS Center urges for immediate intervention with the permanent member states of the United Nations Security Council, to assume their responsibilities in accordance with the principles and objectives of the United Nations, in maintaining international peace and security, and to issue a resolution from the United Nations Security Council to halt the aggression being waged by the occupation state on the Gaza Strip.