Faced with increasingly shrill Israeli condemnations and serious threats to create a humanitarian crisis, the Fatah and Hamas factions have agreed to “skip” the planned unity government leading up to the next election.
Hamas officials say that the sides have quietly agreed to keep the current system – a Hamas-run Gaza Strip and Fatah-run West Bank, until next year’s elections, supposed to be held in May. The two sides had been close to such a deal but were delayed by disputes over who would take which positions in the unity.
But Israeli officials had threatened several measures in response. Over the weekend, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon even suggested that Israel would cut off the water supply and electricity to the Gaza Strip as protest for the unity government.
Israel supplies around 70 percent of the electricity to the Gaza Strip, but virtually all of the drinking water, and would have cut pretty much the entire water supply from 1.5 million people in the strip.
Apartheid wins again.
divide and rule
^ apartheid is about an unequal law system.
water on the other hand is real f***ing important for things such as living (particularly when you live in desert/drought conditions)
and im not a lawyer but i think just threatening to cut off water to 1.5 million captive civilians is it self a warcrime or at least some violation of international law.
the interesting thing though is all the b***hing about existential threats Israel has just proved it can kill off all of the gaza strip in about 48 hours with out lifting a finger.
For ANYONE besides isreal yes – it would be a crime, but…
eh 5% i stand hyperbolic…
Jason,
Israel only supplies 5% of Gaza's water, which obviously changes the story above quite substantially.See the Telegraph, for example: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middlee…
Please correct the story to accurately reflect the facts.