Friday, February 08, 2008

8-Feb-08: Power plays

Late last night (Thursday) Israel carried out its threat to cut back on electricity supplied by it to the Gazan Hamas regime. A "huge" one percent reduction in power supplied to Gaza went into effect according to Haaretz: one megawatt of the total of 124 MW Israel supplies the Strip. Israel aims to eventually lower the amount of electricity it supplies the Gaza Strip, down to about 5% of what is currently supplied.

The generating station which provides this electricity has been under daily rocket and mortar attack by the same terrorist thugs who are now screaming "collective punishment".

So far today (Friday at 1:00pm), the Palestinian Arab terrorists of Gaza have launched at least a dozen rockets into Israel. Yesterday's toll was seven rockets and eight mortar shells, wounding two in Sderot, according to the IDF. An IDF spokesperson is quoted this morning making the statement that 90% or more of Israelis want to hear: "Israel will continue gradually scaling back electricity until the territory's Hamas rulers end the rocket fire... It's their choice. They need to choose if they want to keep investing in rockets and in attacking Israel or if they want electricity from Israel".

Human Rights Watch says Israel's electricity cuts "amount to collective punishment of the civilian population, and violate Israel's obligations under the laws of war." It said the cuts are affecting civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, water-pumping stations and sewage-treatment facilities.

No word yet on HRW's view about the daily rocket assault on southern Israel in which, collectively, hundreds of thousands of Israeli homes are under constant threat, with daily damage and injuries. Holding breath not advised.

Egypt and Israel today supply 70 percent of electricity consumed in the Gaza Strip and the rest is produced locally. Israel's Supreme Court ruled last week that the policy of electricity reduction to the Gazan Palestinian-Arab Hamas regime is proper and lawful.

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