Israeli Blockade Unlawful Despite Gaza Border Breach [View All]

[Tom Joad]

Israel/Gaza: Israeli Blockade Unlawful Despite Gaza Border Breach
Indiscriminate Palestinian Rocket Attacks Violate International Law

(New York, January 26, 2008) – This week’s Gaza-Egypt border breach temporarily eased the humanitarian impact of Israel’s blockade, but Israel as the occupying power remains responsible for the well-being of Gaza’s 1.4 million residents, Human Rights Watch said today. Gazans remain almost completely dependent on Israel for fuel, electricity, medicine, food, and other essential commodities.
Human Rights Watch also called upon Palestinian armed groups in Gaza to stop their indiscriminate rocket attacks into populated areas in Israel in violation of international humanitarian law. The attacks have wounded 82 Israeli civilians in the past six months.

“Israel’s rightful self-defense against unlawful rocket attacks does not justify a blockade that denies civilians the food, fuel and medicine needed to survive, a policy amounting to collective punishment,” said Joe Stork, acting director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East division. “Gazans can’t turn on the lights, get tap water, buy enough food, or earn a living without Israel’s consent.”

Some Israeli officials have suggested that the temporary breach in the Egypt-Gaza border means that Israel has relinquished all responsibility for Gaza. “We need to understand that when Gaza is open to the other side, we lose responsibility for it,” said Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai on January 24, 2008. “So we want to disconnect from it.”

Israel withdrew its military forces and settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005, but it still controls Gaza’s airspace, territorial waters, and land borders – with the exception this week of the Rafah border area with Egypt. Israel is Gaza’s primary supplier of electricity, which is essential for water availability and sewage treatment. In addition, Israel controls Gaza’s telecommunications network, its population registry, and its customs and tax revenues. Israeli security forces have frequently re-entered Gaza at will.

“The sudden opening of Gaza’s border with Egypt has changed, for the time being, only one of the many indices of Israel’s control over essential aspects of life in Gaza,” Stork said. “Israel remains responsible for the well-being of Gaza’s civilians.” ... more at http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/01/26/isrlpa17891_txt.htm