Gaza: Health crisis looms as plant bombed
SMH
THE destruction of the only power plant in the Gaza Strip threatens to create a humanitarian disaster because the plant supplied electricity to two-thirds of Gaza's 1.3 million residents and operated pumps that provided water.
Across Gaza yesterday, people hurried to stock up on emergency supplies of bottled water, candles and food that will not spoil.
With nearly three-quarters of a million people without electricity, Gazans sat on the footpath to try to catch a breeze, glancing skyward when Israeli aircraft circled overhead.
Twelve hours later, workers at the power station were still hosing down six wrecked transformers billowing smoke after each one was picked off by a single missile, leaving heaps of buckled metal.
The plant's operations manager, Derar Abu Sisi, predicted it would not be generating again before the end of the year. He said: "What I know about war is that economics and infrastructure is usually the last target ... We're very sorry that it's the first stage of war here. They know very well the electricity sector doesn't have weapons."
Britain has challenged Israel's justification for the bombing of the plant. A Foreign Office spokesman said the destruction of the power station represented a collective punishment of a civilian population that posed no military threat. Collective punishments are a war crime outlawed by the fourth Geneva Convention.
... Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, insisted the destruction of the plant was done for purely military reasons. Israel has not adopted the Geneva Conventions into law but it says it abides by them.
Mr Regev denied destroying the power station was illegal, saying his country was involved in a genuine military conflict. Read more
Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949
ARTICLE 33
No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.
Pillage is prohibited.
Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited..
THE destruction of the only power plant in the Gaza Strip threatens to create a humanitarian disaster because the plant supplied electricity to two-thirds of Gaza's 1.3 million residents and operated pumps that provided water.
Across Gaza yesterday, people hurried to stock up on emergency supplies of bottled water, candles and food that will not spoil.
With nearly three-quarters of a million people without electricity, Gazans sat on the footpath to try to catch a breeze, glancing skyward when Israeli aircraft circled overhead.
Twelve hours later, workers at the power station were still hosing down six wrecked transformers billowing smoke after each one was picked off by a single missile, leaving heaps of buckled metal.
The plant's operations manager, Derar Abu Sisi, predicted it would not be generating again before the end of the year. He said: "What I know about war is that economics and infrastructure is usually the last target ... We're very sorry that it's the first stage of war here. They know very well the electricity sector doesn't have weapons."
Britain has challenged Israel's justification for the bombing of the plant. A Foreign Office spokesman said the destruction of the power station represented a collective punishment of a civilian population that posed no military threat. Collective punishments are a war crime outlawed by the fourth Geneva Convention.
... Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, insisted the destruction of the plant was done for purely military reasons. Israel has not adopted the Geneva Conventions into law but it says it abides by them.
Mr Regev denied destroying the power station was illegal, saying his country was involved in a genuine military conflict. Read more
Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949
ARTICLE 33
No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.
Pillage is prohibited.
Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited..
posted by exoplanet at 5:15 PM
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