Gaza: “Deliberately attacking the power plant would be a war crime.”

The apparent Israeli shellfire that knocked out the Gaza Strip’s only electrical power plant on July 29, 2014, has worsened the humanitarian crisis for the territory’s 1.7 million people, Human Rights Watch said today. Damaging or destroying a power plant, even if it also served a military purpose, would be an unlawful disproportionate attack under the laws of war, causing far greater civilian harm than military gain.

 The shutdown of the Gaza Power Plant has had an impact on the population far beyond power outages, Human Rights Watch said. It has drastically curtailed the pumping of water to households and the treatment of sewage, both of which require electric power. It also caused hospitals, already straining to handle the surge of war casualties, to increase their reliance on precarious generators. And it has affected the food supply because the lack of power has shut off refrigerators and forced bakeries to reduce their bread production.

“If there were one attack that could be predicted to endanger the health and well-being of the greatest number of people in Gaza, hitting the territory’s sole electricity plant would be it,” said Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Deliberately attacking the power plant would be a war crime.”

Source

 According to the BBC "Israel said its forces hit the station by accident"

Please read our comment rules before posting