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Illustrative scene. Published by IMEMC News
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by IMEMC News
March 10, 2025

Most of the 2.2 million Palestinian civilians living in the Gaza Strip have been without electricity since October 2023. Now, Israeli authorities have ordered the shut-off of an electric line that provides power for a desalination plant that provides drinking water to many of the Palestinians in Gaza.

This follows the recent closure of the Kerem Shalom crossing in northern Gaza, preventing the entry of much-needed humanitarian aid, as Gazans attempt to try to rebuild some semblance of their former lives that were completely decimated during the 16-month long Israeli bombardment that killed over 50,000 Palestinians.

British Parliament Member Apsana Begum condemned the Israeli cut-off of electricity, saying, “Palestinians in Gaza are already without adequate levels of aid as Israel threatens to withdraw electricity & water, once again. Let me be clear: this amounts to collective punishment. Our Government must not hesitate to condemn these threats & actions, from its staunch & close ally.”

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, said on Sunday that Israel’s cutting off of electricity supplies to the Gaza Strip threatens genocide.

Albanese added, via her account on Twitter, that “Israel’s cutting off of electricity supplies to Gaza means that there are no operating desalination plants, and therefore no clean water, which is a warning of genocide.”

She stressed that “not imposing sanctions and an arms embargo on Israel means supporting it to commit in Gaza one of the most preventable genocides in our history.”

Gaza’s only power plant was bombed by Israeli forces in 2006 following the Palestinian election of the Hamas party. By 2012, it had been fully rebuilt and was functional until 2014, when Israeli forces again bombed and destroyed it. It was rebuilt again, but destroyed by Israeli forces in 2023.