The defence ministry has said that Israel has begun cutting back energy supplies to the Gaza Strip, in a move slammed by rights groups as collective punishment and a violation of the laws of war.
"The Israeli electricity company yesterday evening reduced by about one per cent electricity supplied by high tension line to the Gaza Strip," defence ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror told a news agency on Thursday.
Ahead of the reduction the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) group said in a new report that the planned "cuts of fuel and electricity to Gaza, amount to collective punishment of the civilian population."
Israel began reducing the amount of fuel it supplied to Gaza in late October after declaring the coastal strip a "hostile entity" following its takeover by Hamas, an Islamist movement pledged to the destruction of the Jewish state.
The defence ministry on Thursday said it would reduce by five per cent the amount of electricity it supplies to Gaza in one of 10 lines, with similar cuts in other lines to follow in the coming weeks.
The cuts will eventually reduce the 120 megawatts
Israel supplies to the increasingly isolated territory by 1.5 megawatts.
Israel says the measures are aimed at stopping Gaza militants from firing rockets into Israel and has pledged not to allow a humanitarian disaster in the territory where most of the population depends on foreign aid.
But HRW said the measures were affecting civilians not involved in anti-Israeli violence and having a grave impact on essential infrastructure such as hospitals, water-pumping stations and sewage treatment facilities.
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