Electricity reprieve for Gaza
Human rights group fear innocent Palestinians will suffer
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Tuesday, 30, Oct 2007 12:35
Israel's plans to halt electricity supplies to the Gaza Strip have been halted by the country's attorney general.
Menahem Mazuz was responding to calls by human rights groups that the cut was unfair because it constituted collective punishment to the entire area.
The drastic move had initially been approved after the Israeli government declared the Gaza Strip an "enemy entity" last month, following intermittent rocket attacks from the territory on Israeli soil in the past few months.
Now Mr Mazuz has said more work is required to establish the impact of the measure by the defence ministry.
At stake is "the possibility of implementing this measure to comply with the government decision in the matter, which qualified these measures over humanitarian harm to the civilian population," the Associated Press news agency quoted a statement from the justice ministry as saying.
Militant anti-Israeli group Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip earlier this year in a climax to lengthy internecine fighting with the moderate Palestinian faction Fatah.
While Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah has received approval from the international community in the West Bank, Palestinians living in Gaza have struggled under the continuing weight of heavy punitive sanctions.
Israel's proposal to heighten these by cutting electricity has been condemned by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon. A spokesperson said Mr Ban believed the plan was "unacceptable".
But commentators have pointed out that Israel is able to argue that it is no longer bound by international law stating that it must supply occupied territories with energy.