GAZA CITY, Palestine

The Palestinian resistance group Hamas decried on Wednesday Israel’s continued cut of electricity and food supplies to the Gaza Strip as a “war crime.”

“Israel’s ongoing power cuts to Gaza, lasting over 16 months, and the recent severing of the limited electricity line powering the Deir al-Balah desalination plant constitute a war crime that risks a thirst catastrophe,” Hamas said in a statement.

Hamas said Israel’s use of water and food as tools of war against civilians “is part of a systematic effort to worsen Gaza’s humanitarian disaster.”

It accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of imposing “unprecedented collective punishment” against over two million Gazans.

Israel cut off the electricity supply to Gaza on Sunday, in the latest move to tighten a stifling blockade on the Palestinian enclave despite a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement.

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese denounced the Israeli move as a “genocide alert”, saying that without electricity, there is no clean water.

It followed another Israeli decision to stop humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, prompting warnings from local and human rights groups of a return to widespread hunger for the Palestinian population.

On Tuesday, Mohammad Thabet, a spokesman of the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company, said that Israel provided the enclave with only five megawatts of electricity since last November before its recent decision to cut off power to the enclave.

Hamas said Israel’s closure of the Gaza crossings and blocking of food and medical supplies are “a grave breach” of a Gaza ceasefire deal and “a flagrant violation of international and humanitarian law.”

It urged the UN, humanitarian organizations, and Arab states to act swiftly to halt “these barbaric crimes,” lift the blockade, and hold Israeli leaders accountable before international justice.

More than 48,500 people have been killed, mostly women and children, in a brutal Israeli war on Gaza since October 2023. The onslaught was paused under the ceasefire and prisoner swap deal, which took hold in January.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.