Germany is concerned about Israel’s move to cut electricity supplies to Gaza and by talks on ending water supplies, the German Federal Foreign Office said Monday.
“Such steps are or would be unacceptable and incompatible with international legal obligations,” Foreign Office spokesperson Kathrin Deschauer said, stressing that electricity is essential for the operation of the water desalination plant at Khan Yunis. Israel halted Gaza’s electricity supply Sunday.
The plant is currently using generators that are in poor condition and could stop working at any moment, said desalination plant manager Ahmed Alrobai according to Al Jazeera. If the generators fail, hundreds of thousands of Gazans would be deprived of clean drinking water and raw sewage could be discharged into the Mediterranean.
On March 2, hours after a mutual cease-fire and prisoner exchange deal expired, Israel suspended the movement of goods into the rubble-strewn territory, where more than 2 million Palestinians live on the edge of survival following more than a year of heavy bombardment.
“We expressed our deep concern about the halting of access to goods and supplies to Gaza and called on Israel to comply with its obligations under international law and to ensure the full, rapid, safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza,” Deschauer said on Monday.
The International Criminal Court said Israel may have used “starvation as a method of warfare” in issuing an arrest warrant for PM Benjamin Netanyahu last year. Israel has rejected the accusation.
Deschauer also called on Hamas to “finally put an end to the suffering and humiliation of the remaining hostages and their families and release the hostages in accordance with the cease-fire and hostage deal.”
Hamas dubbed the electricity cutoff “a desperate attempt to pressure our people and their resistance through cheap and unacceptable blackmail tactics,” according to Al Jazeera.
Israel on Monday sent a delegation to Doha, where cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas are to resume with Egypt, Qatar and the United States mediating.
Israeli officials and Hamas agreed on a six-week cease-fire deal shortly before Donald Trump was inaugurated as U.S. president. Israel has been pushing to continue the first phase of the deal, mostly a hostage exchange, without committing to permanently ending the war, while Hamas is pushing to begin talks on the second phase of the truce, which should lay the groundwork for a permanent cease-fire.
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