The closure of Gaza’s sole power plant will worsen the already dire humanitarian situation for the more than 2.2 million people who are stranded in the Gaza Strip due to Israel’s heavy bombing campaign, which has resulted in at least 1,350 deaths and over 6,000 injuries.
The attack on October 7 by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups from Gaza, which fired indiscriminate rockets and sent fighters into southern Israel, killing over 1,200 people, injuring over 2,700 others, and taking hostages, many of whom were civilians, prompted the airstrikes.
“The unjust 16-year embargo on the Gaza Strip must stop immediately, and the Israeli authorities must eliminate the enhanced limitations imposed as a result of the Minister of Defense’s decision dated October 9, 2023, and restore Gaza’s energy supplies. It is harsh and inhumane to punish Gaza’s civilian population collectively; it is the equivalent of a war crime. Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, stated, “As the occupying power, Israel has a clear obligation under international law to ensure the basic needs of Gaza’s civilian population are met.”
The blackout has made the Gaza Strip completely dark and will make the humanitarian crisis worse. It will also restrict internet access and communication. In addition to severely impairing access to clean water and key services, the power outages will have a disastrous effect on public health, depriving Gaza’s chronically underfunded hospitals of critical medical supplies at a time when medical personnel are already straining to treat thousands of seriously injured victims of Israeli attacks. Additionally, it will put hospital patients’ lives in jeopardy, particularly those with chronic illnesses and those in critical care, including very ill newborns on life support.
According to a minister in Israel, unless Hamas frees its hostages, the government will not allow gasoline or water to enter, nor will it restore power. This is clear proof that the operations conducted are meant to exact revenge on Gaza’s civilian population for the deeds of Palestinian armed groups. Amnesty International emphasizes that Israeli policy should refrain from subjecting Palestinian civilians to unjust treatment because they are not involved in or able to control the actions of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, nor should they be held accountable for their crimes.
“Despite the horrific mass murder of Israeli civilians by Palestinian armed groups and other serious crimes, Israel is still required to uphold international humanitarian law and protect civilians. Agnes Callamard said, “The collective punishment of civilians in Gaza will not bring security to civilians in Israel or justice to the victims of war crimes committed by Hamas and other armed groups.”
The continuous attacks on the Rafah border crossing also worry Amnesty International. It requires Israel to help establish humanitarian corridors to facilitate the delivery of aid to Gaza and to provide safe passage for anyone in need of medical attention to travel outside the Gaza Strip. It calls on the international community to work toward an agreement on a humanitarian corridor.
Israeli authorities have to stop carrying out unlawful attacks that cause homes and infrastructure to be destroyed, as well as civilian deaths or injuries. Israeli authorities must ensure the security of all residents within the area under their jurisdiction and refrain from encouraging violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, which includes East Jerusalem. All civilian hostages in Gaza must be immediately and unconditionally released by every armed Palestinian organization.
The Israeli airstrikes on Gaza are being investigated by Amnesty International. Among the strikes are the bombing of a busy market street in the Jabalia refugee camp, which resulted in the deaths of at least 69 people, including at least 15 children, and the strike on a residential building in the al-Zeitoun neighborhood, which killed 15 people from the same family, including seven children who were killed along with their elderly grandparents and five siblings.
Amnesty International is calling on Israel and the armed Palestinian factions to take all appropriate steps to protect civilians, as required by international humanitarian law.
This piece is part of a longer series by Amnesty International detailing the rising rates of violence and human rights violations in Israel, Gaza, and other Occupied Palestinian Territories regions. Amnesty International has published its initial findings of war crimes committed by Hamas and Palestinian armed groups, including mass killings via summary execution, the seizure of hostages, and the firing of indiscriminate missiles. Since there is still evidence of abuses occurring in southern Israel, Amnesty International will continue to investigate the full extent of crimes committed in violation of international law.
Context
Israel has punished the whole population of the Gaza Strip by enforcing an air, land, and sea blockade since 2007. This battle is the sixth significant military operation between Israel and armed organizations operating in Gaza since that time. Israel’s minister of defense, Yoav Gallant, declared on October 9 that Hamas and other Palestinian armed organizations had launched an offensive on Gaza that had murdered 1,200 people and that Israel was launching a “complete siege on Gaza… No electricity, no food, no water, no gas – it’s all closed.”
After investigating the May 2023 offensive on the Gaza Strip, Amnesty International announced its findings in June. It found that Israel had illegally demolished Palestinian homes, frequently without a military need, in what amounted to a kind of collective punishment against the civilian populace.
Amnesty International detailed in its February 2022 report how Israeli forces have carried out acts against civilians in Gaza (as well as the West Bank and Israel) that are illegal under the Apartheid Convention and the Statute of the International Criminal Court. These actions are part of a systematic assault on civilian populations that aims to uphold the apartheid regime’s oppressive and domination over Palestinians, which is considered a crime against humanity.
Prior Amnesty International reports on crimes and abuses committed during hostilities between Israel and Palestinian armed groups.
Amnesty International stated that as concerns for the fate of civilians trapped under siege grow, Israeli authorities must immediately allow the unhindered entry of essential supplies, including food and fuel, into the area and rescind the cruel and unlawful “evacuation” orders—Israel’s euphemism for forced displacement—issued to residents of the North Gaza governorate over the previous week.
The number of civilian casualties in the occupied Gaza Strip has increased in recent days, and horrific scenes have surfaced as a result of fatal Israeli airstrikes, mostly in the North Gaza governorate. The civilian population has been subjected to continuous Israeli bombardment and shelling, without access to necessities such as clean water and food, which are essential for their survival.
A terrifying escalation of the long list of horrors inflicted on people living in the area north of Wadi Gaza since October 2023 is marked by the Israeli military’s most recent “evacuation” orders, which were issued to cities and camps throughout the North Gaza governorate on October 7, 10, and 12, as well as the tightening of the siege.
Heba Morayef, Regional Director for Amnesty International for the Middle East and North Africa, said, “The Israeli military has intensified its efforts to forcibly displace the entire civilian population in the area north of Wadi Gaza to the south, starting with the North Gaza governorate. This has left civilians to choose between starvation and displacement, while their homes and streets are relentlessly pounded by bombs and shells.”
“The world must cease to watch as Israel employs famine, a siege, and atrocity crimes to destroy civilian life and forcefully evict residents. To stop the tsunami of suffering that has been enveloping Gaza’s civilian population for more than a year, these directives must be revoked and an immediate ceasefire must be agreed upon by all sides.
An illegal mass “evacuation” order that was issued on October 12, 2023, drove hundreds of thousands of Palestinians residing in the region north of Wadi Gaza to migrate south in search of safety. At the time, the number of Palestinians living in that area was reported to be 1.1 million. A heavily guarded Israeli military zone isolated the hundreds of thousands of civilians who remained north of Wadi Gaza from the remainder of the Strip for many months.
The world’s foremost famine experts stated in December 2023 that starvation was extremely acute and pervasive in that region, but Israeli authorities continued to block and refuse humanitarian access to the area. Since the Israeli military tightened its blockade on the region a few days ago, the situation has gotten much more dire. ” Evacuation” orders are in effect for the three partially operational hospitals in the north: Kamal Adwan, Al-Awda, and the Indonesian hospital.
It is heartbreaking to learn from medical professionals in North Gaza that they must carry out numerous amputations each day, or from besieged families that there are scores of indistinguishable corpses strewn across the streets, or that people are unable to bury their loved ones due to nonstop bombardment, following a year of death and devastation. The images emerging from the Jabalia refugee camp are particularly horrific; for more than a week, camp inhabitants have been afraid to leave their houses, not even to go out for a bag of flour, for fear that the ubiquitous quadcopter drones might shoot them. Heba Morayef stated, “What is incomprehensible is how the international community has allowed this nightmare to occur repeatedly.
“Israeli authorities continue to violate the provisional measures ordered by the court, even after the International Court of Justice warned nine months ago that there is a real risk of genocide in Gaza.” To alleviate the immense suffering that we have been witnessing over the past year, global leaders must demand an immediate ceasefire. With the aid of arms exports from nations like the US, Israel has gained the confidence to carry on with its destructive policies in Gaza with complete impunity.
“Israel must immediately allow impartial monitors access to Gaza so they may look into all attacks, in addition to calling for an immediate ceasefire and an end to its brutal and inhumane siege of Gaza and its blockade of the northern region. Heba Morayef stated, “Accountability is required for the destruction committed against Palestinians in Gaza throughout the previous year.
As an unbiased human rights organization, Amnesty International works to guarantee that all sides involved in an armed conflict abide by both international humanitarian law and international human rights law. As a result, Amnesty International will be looking into Israel’s military action in the Gaza Strip in future briefings to see if it is abiding by the requirements of international humanitarian law, which includes taking the necessary precautions to minimize harm to civilians and civilian objects and abstaining from unlawful attacks and from punishing the civilian population collectively as required by law. Amnesty International will keep an eye on what Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups are up to.
