HaMoked to the Minister of Defense: Resume the supply of electricity and water to Gaza; the resultant humanitarian damage is extreme and constitutes prohibited collective punishment

Following the horrific events of October 7, 2023, in which Hamas attacked Israeli communities on the Gaza border, four human rights organizations (Adallah, Gisha, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and HaMoked) wrote on October 12, 2023, to Israel’s Defense Minister, Minister of Energy, Attorney General, and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the West Bank and Gaza, demanding that they immediately reinstate the supply of electricity, fuel and water to the Gaza Strip.

The organizations emphasized that harm to the supply of electricity and water to Gaza – which Israel halted on instruction of the Defense and Energy Ministers on the afternoon of October 11 – constitutes collective punishment and a reprisal against the civilian population, prohibited by international law. Halting electricity supply has disastrous humanitarian consequences for the civilian population in Gaza, and harms dignified human existence. Among other implications, halting electricity harms the ability to treat the wounded from the aerial bombardments and threatens their lives. In addition, the fuel supply from Egypt will soon run out, as Israel bombed and destroyed the main road from the Rafah border crossing. When hospitals’ supply of diesel fuel that powers generators is exhausted, they will not be able to provide live-saving treatment to thousands of injured, dialysis patients, premature infants, and others.

The organizations also noted that this is a grave breach of international humanitarian law which reaches the level of a war crime. Also according to the AlBassiouni judgement of Israel’s High Court for Justice from 2008, Israel is obligated to ensure provision of basic humanitarian needs in the Gaza Strip.